r PA 



. 



THEOGMS RESTITITUS. 



THE 

PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE POET 

THEOGNIS 

DEDUCED FROM AN ANALYSIS OF HIS EXISTING FRAGMENTS. 



A HUNDRED OF THESE FRAGMENTS TRANSLATED OR PARAPHRASED IN ENGLISH METRE ARE 

ARRANGED IN THEIR PROPER BIOGRAPHICAL ORDER WITH AN ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY. 

WITH A PREFACE IN WHICH THE SUGGESTION OF MR. CLINTON, AS TO THE TRUE DATE OF THE 
POETS BIRTH (VIZ. IN OLYMP. 59) IS CONFIRMED BY INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 



MALTA 
1842. 



WV 









I 






"fjimte mag mh 

Hand-Book of Proverbs, page 474, 

BY 

HENRY GK BOHN. 



<T^ 






ERRATA. 

Page 4, 2nd line from bottom, for as, read an. 

9,6th do. do. for and Poverty, read to Poverty. 

10, 7th line, /or TroXiopKia, read nokiopKia. 

. . 14th line from bottom, for Muller, read Miiller. 
. . 2nd do. do. for opposite, read apposite. 

11, 8th line, /or Mu^er, read Muller. 
. . 14th do. do. 

. . 18th do. do. 

. . 26th do. do. 

14, 11th line, for difference, read deference. 

15, 16th line, for extensviely, read extensively. 

16, 9th line from bottom, after necessary dele (,) 
18, 15th line, for Megera, read Megara. 

. . 19th line for invasian, read invasion. 

21, 2nd line from bottom, after assumed dele (,) 

23, 26th line, for quite, read quiet. lb. dele and. 

24, 8th line, /or quarel, read quarrel. 
28, 3rd line, dele their. 

30, 13th line of note, for assasinate, read assassinate. 

. . 20th do. for uparalleld, read unparallel'd. 

. . 4th from bottom of do. for Solons, read Solon's. 

31, 1st line, for envious, read curious. 

. . 6th line from bottom, for settlement, read settlement. 
. . 4th do. do. for opposite, read apposite. 
. . 3rd do. do. for nnd, read and. 

32, 15th line, for Pround, read Proud. 

34, 7th line, for theirs, read their's, (twice.) 

35, 14th line, for lollowing, read following. 
. . 15th line, for Fnneral, read Funeral. 

36, 1st line, for thongh, read though. 

. . 8th line, for arbitary, read arbitrary. 

38, 8th line from bottom, for these, read those. 

39, 5th do. do. for choise, read choice. 

40, 2nd line, for eritical, read critical. 

. . 2nd line from bottom, for Fill, read Till. 

41, 8th line, for For, read For a. 

46, 1st line, for be, read been. 

. . 2nd line,/or buisness, read business. 

47, 4th line from bottom, for unprepard, read unprepar'd 

48, 6th do. do. for Initation, read Initiation. 

50, 3rd line, for lenght, read length. 

51, 5th line from bottom, for bitten, read bitter. 

52, 2nd line, for born, read borne. 

61, 6th line from bottom, for mantained, read maintained. 

65, 6th line, for cherleess, read cheerless. 

66, 4th line from bottom, for exibited, read exhibited. 
74, 15th line, for unostentations, read unostentatious. 
86, 4th line from bottom, for wishes, read wish. 

105, 7th do. do. for judgment, read judgement. 

108, 3rd line, for hand, read hard. 

112, marginal note, for Mullers, read Midler's. 

116, 6th line from bottom, for anabled, read enabled. 



THEOGNIS. 



— «3>3KS>-i«> CK£<E«-e— 



Of the whole race of Poets who filled the long period which intervened 
between the time of the ancient narrative or Epic Bards, and the Poets of the 
Attic Drama, scarcely any remnants have been preserved to us; the few exist- 
ing fragments of Archilochus, Alcaeus and Sappho excite the regret of the 
Scholar by the beauty of the versification and language; but the loss of their 
entire works is also to be regretted on another account : — They, and the Class 
to which they belong, were decidedly and peculiarly the Poets of Active Life, 
differing in this respect from their Epic predecessors and from the Dramatic 
Tribe which succeeded them. — Their lives were not passed in wandering from 
town to town with occasional entertainment at the public charge, as tradition 
(applying to the individual, what was characteristic of a class) has recorded 
of Homer; nor were they menial minstrels, such as Homer himself has de- 
scribed ; established, like Phemius or Demodocus, in the mansion of a petty 
Sovereign ; neither were they occupied like the Dramatists, in contests for a 
theatrical Prize, engaged in schooling their Actors and uniting in their voca- 
tion the several offices of Manager, Ballet-master and Director of the Band. 

With the Poets above mentioned, verse was the vehicle of their feelings 
and passions, excited as they were by the tumult of an agitated existence; Feuds, 
Factions, Expatriation to distant Colonies, sudden usurpations, revolution and 
exile were the elements by which they were surrounded, and of whose influence 
they partook; and they themselves appear sometimes, to have been among the 
leading Spirits of these tempests; the faculty of composing animated and po- 
pular poetry; giving to the person who applied it to party purposes, a power 
of producing impressions, less forcible indeed in the first instance, but more 
durable and diffusive than the effect of oratory. 

Hence their poetry, turning wholly upon the feelings and passions pro- 
duced by the events and characters with which they were surrounded, con- 
tained, what we should call, the materials for an Autobiography ; and we see 



THEOGNIS. 



in fact, that the Ancients, who were in possession of their writings, were enabled 
to form a clear idea of the Life and Times of Alcaeus and Archilochus. The 
loss therefore of their works, is not only to be lamented by the admirers of 
ancient Poetry, but must be regretted, as depriving us of a View of civil and 
political society at a period antecedent to what is considered as the full de- 
velopment of Grecian civilization; though it might be considered, perhaps 
more justly, in a point of view not less interesting; as an equally perfect form 
of the same civilization, though in some respects differently characterized ; 
being modified in the countries of Asia Minor and the Islands (to which the 
most eminent of this class of poets belong) by the circumstances of a more 
fertile and extended Territory, by more advantageous situations for commer- 
cial enterprize, and above all, by their Colonial Origin, which removing them 
from the influence of a locality, connected with ancient institutions, left them 
free to proceed to development and decay, by a more rapid progress, than 
the old hidebound states, from which they had been severed. — But, it is use- 
less to speculate upon the value of the treasures which we have lost; or to 
diminish by comparison, the worth of the single remnant of this School, 
which has been preserved to us. 

Theognis belongs undoubtedly to the Class of Poets above described ; a 
native of Megara in Greece, He was nearly the last in point of time, and far 
from being the first in point of poetical merit ; yet there is an air of truth and 
reality in his verses, accompanied by a general terseness of expression, which 
gains upon the attention of the reader ; and which is apt to engage him to 
frequent reperusals and reflections. The style is in fact, what according to 
modern notions of poetic language, would be characterized as prosaic; con- 
sisting as it does, of the expressions and phrases of ordinary speech, never in 
any respect vulgar, but wholly without ornament or the affectation of orna- 
ment; it has no pretension to beauty, nor attempts at the sublime; it is the 
language of actual feeling arising out of real circumstances; and its title to 
the name of poetry must perhaps be rested on the correctness of its metre ; 
nevertheless, this very simplicity gives to it in some respects a greater inter- 
est, as an authentic, unadorned document, illustrative of the state of social 
existence and domestic politics in Greece, at a period anterior to the Persian 
war. It should seem therefore, that as useful and agreeable addition to our 
knowledge of antiquity, might be obtained; if the confused mass of fragments, 



THEOGNIS 



which constitute the present text, could be reduced to a rational order, exhibit- 
ing in a regular series, the various events of the Poet's life, which are indicated 
by them, and the successive changes of circumstance and situation under 
which they were composed. 

A task of a similar description, and of nearly equal difficulty, was accom- 
plished several years ago, by the ingenious Mr. Stevenson of Norwich. Being 
a great lover of antiquities, and particularly and more especially, a most pas- 
sionate admirer and collector of painted glass; he had availed himself of 
the treaty of Amiens, to make a tour in the Netherlands ; and succeeded in 
purchasing many fine windows, the spoils of the monasteries, which had passed 
into private hands ; he then returned, having agreed with the vendor that 
the glass should be sent after him; and so it was; but on its arrival, Mr. S. 
was appalled by the discovery, that the lead, not having been specially in- 
cluded in the purchase, had been stript off; and that the treasure which he 
expected, was reduced to a chaos of painted glass, of all shapes, sizes and 
colours. He was not however discouraged, but finally by continued patience 
and attention, at the end of two or three years, succeeded in recomposing the 
whole. 

The state in which the remains of Theognis have been transmitted to us, 
resembles that in which Mr. S — received his purchase of painted glass ; but 
with this additional difficulty, that they are not the misarranged parts of any 
complete compositions; but detached pieces, the fragments of occasional po- 
ems, composed at very different times, and under very different circumstances. 

Such is the confusion of the present text, that in the same page, the Poet is 
to be found speaking of himself as rich and poor, old and young, an exile and a 
citizen ; and so on promiscuously, without the slightest appearance of order or 
coherence from the beginning to the end. — Out of this confusion, an attempt 
is made to construct a sort of Autobiography by arranging the fragments in 
the order of the incidents to which they refer; a task of no small difficulty; 
considering that the testimony of ancient Authors is contradictory upon two 
such important points as those of the Place and Time of his Birth. If however, 
renouncing all dependence upon these conflicting authorities, we recur to the 
evidence of the text itself, we find that the city to which he belonged wasfound- 
ed by Alcathous ; and since all authorities are agreed, and his own testimony 



THEOGNIS. 



Vide Frag. 
6. 7. 8. 



See Fasti 

Hellenici 

p. 35 



proves, that the name of his native city was Megara, (this circumstance 
as Mr. Brunck has shewn, is decisive in favor of the more ancient Megara the 
Megara of Greece proper.) Again, the same Megara is described by the Poet 
as exposed to imminent danger from the expected invasion of the Persians : 
lastly, the only other Megara, the Megara in Sicily (to which it may be added 
that the last mentioned circumstance would not apply) is moreover positively 
excluded by his mention of Sicily, as one among the number of foreign Coun- 
tries which He had visited. 

A satisfactory conclusion with respect to the Time of his Birth, may in like 
manner be deduced from internal evidence, though by a process somewhat 
more circuitous. At the time when he was practically philosophising upon 
the subject of hard drinking, we must conclude him to have been a very young 
man ; and this paroxysm of experimental conviviality cannot be supposed to 
have been of very long duration; but it appears, that during its continuance, 
verses illustrative of his theory and practice were addressed to two of his 
poetic and toping companions, Simonides and Onomacritus. Now the only 
time in which it is at all probable, that these two persons could have been as- 
sociated as joint Compotators with Theognis, must have been that period of 
Hipparchus' reign, subsequent to the arrival of Simonides, and anterior to the 
exile of Onomacritus : now this first arrival of Simonides is fixed by Mr. Clin- 
ton (the highest authority on such questions) in the year 525 A. C. With 
respect to the age of Simonides at the time of his arrival at Athens, there is 
no difficulty, his birth being fixed, by the most undoubted testimony (that of 
his own verses) in the year 556. With respect to Theognis, the case is dif- 
ferent ; Chronologers are agreed in assigning to him the 59th Olympiad 
544 A. C. but whether, as the date of his Birth, or the period at which he 
became famous and celebrated, is a point which their opposite and ambiguous 
testimony has left undetermined ; but the internal evidence is wholly in favor 
of the conclusion which Mr. C — has suggested ; namely, that «' Theognis 
might be supposed to have been born, rather than to have flourished in Olympiad 
59 " upon this supposition, he must have been twelve years younger than 
Simonides, and their respective ages at the time of Simonides* arrival 
would have been ]9 and 31; he might then at the age of three and twenty 
have illustrated his philosophic theory of inebriety, in verses addressed 



THEOGNIS. 



to Simonides and Onomacritus, after which there would remain the latter 
half of Hipparchus' reign, six or seven years, in any one of which, the exile 
of Onomacritus might have taken place. The tone of his verses to Simoni- 
des in three different instances, shews them to have been addressed to a 
person older than himself, and is utterly irreconcileable with the supposition 
of his having been a man of fame and celebrity nineteen years before the time 
when he could have had an opportunity of forming that very free and familiar 
acquaintance, which seems, at one time, to have subsisted between them. This 
is particularly manifest in a fragment, which is not translated, but of which, 
the original will be found in the portion of his poetry lately discovered. He 
is apologizing for his debaucheries, in verses addressed to Simonides, and just- 
ifying them by an appeal to poetical Mythology ! ! Supposing the writer to 
have been in his senses, such verses could not possibly have been composed 
by a man of mature age, and addressed to a person many years younger, with 
whom he had only become lately acquainted. — On the other hand, if we sup- 
pose him to have been the younger man, and that his acquaintance with Simo- 
nides had taken place when he was at the age of 19 or 20; the whole becomes 
perfectly natural and probable. A young man of wealth and (as far as it 
appears) entirely his own master, careless at that time of money, but eager for 
knowledge, and passionately addicted to the joint arts of music and poetry, 
would hardly have failed to avail himself of the advantages for improvement 
and instruction, which were afforded him by the establishment of so celebrated 
a man of letters in his immediate vicinity ; and Simonides who had been at- 
tracted and fixed at the court of Hipparchus by "great gifts and pensions," 
would not, it may be presumed, have avoided the society of a young poet of 
rank and wealth; who manifested a wish for instruction, and a willingness to 
pay for it. Upon this footing an intimacy might have been formed very ra- 
pidly ; his literary instructor might very properly under these circumstances, 
have assumed the character of a Mentor; and his moral remonstrance might 
have been met with a bantering reply (for such it is) an argumentum ad ho- 
minem an appeal to his own authentic precedents and examples, attested by 
fable and poetry ! "How could Simonides," A Mythologist and a Poet, ven- 
ture to disapprove of the conduct of Jupiter? ! " These then are evidently 
the bantering verses of a young man replying to the admonition of a Senior. 



THEOGNIS. 



Farg. 63. 



Again, the verses in which he represents Simonides, as presiding at a 
Convivial Meeting, and not knowing how to conduct himself, are suitable 
enough to the petulant vivacity of a young man, who with a sincere respect 
and regard for his Senior, cannot forbear to notice his defects in manner and 
behaviour. Criticisms of this kind, which if they proceeded from a person of 
more advanced age, would be felt as seriously offensive, are frequently 
received from a younger companion with perfect good humour ; and for a 
very good reason — They do not imply Contempt. The same difference of 
age is marked equally, though in a very different manner, at a later period, 
when Theognis must have been seriously disgusted — when he declines 
Simonides' invitation ; and anticipates that the lines in which he conveys, his 
refusal, will be communicated to his enemies; notwithstanding all this, and 
the irritation and agitation of his own mind, there is in this fragment 
an evident tone of forbearance and reserve, betokening the remains of 
habitual respect; such as he might be supposed to retain for his Senior, 
and the Instructor of his youth. From all these considerations, we should 
infer, that it is impossible to suppose the 59 Olympiad to have been the period 
of his Celebrity — such a supposition (even allowing him to have attained to 
Celebrity at the earliest age possible) would place him more in advance of 
Simonides in point of years, than, from what has been said above, it should 
seem that Simonides must have been with respect to him. We must there- 
fore incline to that chronology which marks this Olympiad as the time of his 
Birth — upon this supposition, he would have been thirty years of age at the 
time of the murder of Hipparchus, which seems to have given occasion to some 
lines in which he discussed the question of tyrannicide (Fragt. XXIII) and 
to others in which he speaks slightingly of the solemnities of a royal funeral 
(Fragt. XXIV and XXV.) 

These lines are such as no man living in exile would have ventured to write. 
The friends of the deceased Ruler (as appears from the magnificence with which 
the Funeral is celebrated) being evidently still in power. The Poet therefore 
at the time when they were composed, must have been a citizen of Megara ; 
the Funeral moreover, must have taken place in some State immediately ad- 
joining to that Town, at so short a distance, as to make his nonattendance, a 
marked act, which he thought it necessary to justify and explain. 



THEOGNIS. 



The reform of Cleisthenes at Athens, and the revolution in Megara, of 
which the materials had been long in preparation, appear to have been events 
nearly contemporary, and probably had a reciprocal influence on each other. 
— Upon this supposition, it would have taken place in the 35th year of the 
Poet's age. Three years after, we find him an Exile, a witness of the devas- 
tation of the Lelantian plain, and cursing the Corinthians, by whose example 
and intrigues the confederate army under Cleomenes had been broken up, 
leaving the Thebans and Eubaeans exposed to defeat and invasion. 

We then find him at Thebes, living (as he says himself) as an Exile, and 
exposed to the mortifications incident to a life of Exile. — Thebes seems to have 
been the scene of those hopes of a triumphant restoration, which he and his 
brother emigrants at one time entertained; (see Fragt. LXXVill) and all men- 
tion of it is accordingly omitted, in the verses composed long afterwards, 
when by the indulgence of the ruling party, he had been permitted to return. 
Thebes had been the Coblentz of the party ; a place of which the name was not 
to be pronounced by a returned Emigrant. Some disagreements, some dis- 
appointments, which are discoverable by the glimmer of inference and allusion, 
(but of which as they are foreign to the question of chronology, it may be suf- 
ficient to say that they might have been comprized in a short space of time,) 
combined with the pressure of utter poverty had the effect of inducing the 
Poet to separate from his Companions, and to seek his fortune for himself. Si- 
cily was the great mart for destitute men of talent, and to Sicily he repaired, 
being then, it may be supposed in his 40th or 41st year. — Then follows the 
period to which we may refer all those fragments in which he complains of 
poverty and degrading occupation; in which he vindicates himself against 
imputations of meanness and parsimony ; and in which he exults in the gra- 
dual acquisition of property. 

Nothing is more remarkable in a view of private life among the Greeks, 
than the rapid transition from Wealth and Poverty, and again from poverty 
to wealth; and Theognis was destined to exhibit an example of both; for he 
appears to have accumulated rapidly what, considering it probably, in a Me- 
garian point of view, he regarded as a respectable amount of property; for 
wealth at Syracuse was proverbially tenfold the amount of what would have 
constituted wealth in any other Grecian State. 



10 



THEOGNIS. 



The only historical fact connected with his sojourn in Sicily is the Siege of 
Syracuse by Gelo, acting at that time as Lieutenant to Hippocrates (as related 
by Herodotus in his brief summary of the steps by which Gelo had risen to 
power. Book VII.) This siege was terminated by the joint intervention of 
the Corinthians and Corcyreans, under whose mediation a treaty was con- 
cluded. We learn from the testimony of Suidas, that Theognis composed a 
long poem (jslq too? crwG^vxas twv Supaxou^iwv ev zf[ 7roXtopxia) verses " ad- 
dressed during the siege to the survivors of the Syracusan army " for the 
siege as Herodotus states, had been preceded by the entire overthrow of their 
army on the banks of the Elorus ; and when we consider that the flight of their 
routed forces must have followed the same track which was afterwards tra- 
versed by the Athenians in their retreat from Syracuse, that Gelo, as the Ge- 
neral of Cavalry must have been in pursuit of them, the defeat (as indeed we 
may infer from its being followed by the immediate siege of Syracuse itself) 
must have been a little short of extermination ; and those of the army, who 
effecting their escape, formed afterwards the most efficient part of the garri- 
son, might well have been addressed as too? ctwQ^vtocs the Survivors. 

Four verses are still to be found, which may be supposed to belong to this 
poem(Fragt. C) the description of the a/pY^Toi being applied to the expelled 
Gamori as contrasted with the party who defended the city. 

In the chronological table annexed by Professor Muller to his admirable 
work on the Dorians, the first year of the 72nd Olympiad A. C 492 is assigned 
as an approximate date to the battle of Elorus; considering the events which 
must have intervened, the siege of Syracuse and the death of Hippocrates, 
followed by the usurpation of Gelo, who in the year 492 A. C. (see Fasti 
Hellenici p. 24) made himself master of Gela, this seems to be the latest date 
that can be assigned to it ; but either this date or a year earlier might afford 
sufficient time for a man of talents and activity, (living in a wealthy and li- 
beral community, earning as much as he could, and spending as little as pos- 
sible) to acquire considerable wealth. Adventurers to India and Mexico (even 
without extraordinary economy, such as Theognis seems to have practised) 
have sometimes realized good fortunes in a shorter time, and to come to a 
nearer and more opposite instance, Gorgias and Hippias must have made 
money much faster and probably spent it more liberally than Theognis appears 



THEOGNIS. 



LI 



to have done, at least if we may judge from his verses to Timagoras and Da- 
mocles. This difficulty, if indeed it be such, might have been eluded; for 
there is nothing but the date (which in contradiction to all moral probability 
would make Theognis an older man than Simonides) which should prevent us 
from assigning the verses, in which after his return to Megara, he alludes to 
the impending invasion of Persia, to a later period than the battle of Mara- 
thon ; for it is most certain, that the alarms of invasion were not terminated 
by that battle : Corsini, as quoted by Professor Muller (for the writer has not 
been able to procure the work) assigns the poem noticed by Suidas, to the 
last year of the 73rd Olympiad, which would have allowed two additional 
Olympiads, during which Theognis might have been growing rich; and the 
deprecation of the approach of old age might not appear quite absurd, in 
verses composed two years afterwards, at the age of 61. In the chronologi- 
cal table of Professor Muller, Theognis is said to be still composing poetry 
in the 2nd year of the 74th Olympiad, the year immediately preceding the 
march of Xerxes. 

As the grounds upon which this determination is founded, are not stated, 
we are at a loss to guess whether Professor Muller refers to the verses now 
in existence, in which the apprehensions of a Persian invasion are expressed, 
or whether his extensive and acute researches have furnished him with other 
evidence in proof that Theognis was composing poetry at the time which he 
states. At this period, he would have been, according to the proposed date, 
61 years of age; according to that which has been commonly received, 85; 
a time of life, at which no man who retained his faculties, would seriously 
deprecate as he does, the approach of old age! — If therefore, the verses now 
in existence, are those which Professor Muller had in view, we must suppose 
him (and the rather, as he has not noted in his tables, any time for the Poet's 
birth) to have rejected tacitly the earlier date for that event ; being, as it is, 
inconsistent with, the latest of his existing compositions. Any difficulty there- 
fore which there might appear in supposing Theognis to have accumulated 
at Syracuse in the space of twelve years, what to a Megarian would have 
appeared considerable wealth, might have been eluded by adopting the de- 
termination of Corsini, and prolonging his residence in Sicily to the end of the 
73rd or the 1st year of the 74th Olympiad. 

2 



(Fragt. XCI. 
and XCVI.) 



12 



THEOGNIS. 



(Fragt, CII. 



(Fragt. CIII. 



(Fragt. CV. 

and CVI.) 



But the writer of these pages would not consent to avail himself of this 
evasion or dissemble the strong conviction impressed on his mind, that the 
Corinthian negotiator, who in conjunction with the Corcyrean had acted as 
Mediator between Gelo and the besieged Syracusans, was also the Mediator 
between the Poet and his fellow citizens of Megara. It should seem, that 
having secured the good offices of his Corinthian friend (whose dexterity and 
powers of persuasion are alluded to in the enigmatic mention of Sisyphus the 
Corinthian) he removed to the Peloponnese, to await the result. It was at this 
time that he presented himself at Sparta, and had the good fortune to be well 
received; a circumstance which he probably considered as of some importance 
in giving him additional consideration in the eyes of his fellow-citizens ; for it 
is observable, that in the accounts which remain to us of the most eminent 
persons of Greece, any mark of esteem or respect, which might have been 
shown them by the community of Sparta, is always recorded as an authorita- 
tive testimony in their favor. 

To this residence in Lacedemon, we may assign those verses in which 
Theotimus is mentioned — the melancholy images which they exhibit are 
not apt to beset the fancy at a much earlier age. While we are ascending 
the hill of life, the acclivity before us, screens the future from our sight; 
but when we have reached the summit, and are preparing to descend, it 
bursts suddenly upon us; and remains before us as a fixed and constant pros- 
pect.* These lines therefore cannot, it should seem, with any probability be 
referred to a period anterior to his long residence in Sicily; but would be per- 
fectly suitable to the period of life 54 or 55 at which he obtained his recall 
from banishment : an event of which at the time when they were written, he 
must have been in immediate expectation. — There are also other verses writ- 
ten in Lacedemon, alluding to the trust which he reposed in his friend ; for it 
should seem that money must have been an ingredient among the other 
considerations under which his recall was effected. — The verses in which the 
apprehension of a Persian invasion is alluded to, have all the character of 
an Emigrant very lately returned; and must have been composed about the 
time of the battle of Marathon ; but there seems no absolute necessity for 

* Swift says writing to Lord Bolingbroke, "I was forty seven years old when I 
began to think of Death; and the reflections upon it now begin when I wake in the 
morning, and end when I am going to sleep." 



y 



THEOGNIS. 



13 



supposing that they were composed before that event. — For this disappoint- 
ment of Darius' expedition was followed by preparations infinitely more 
formidable and extensive; during which the whole Eastern World was agitated 
(as Herodotus describes) with musters and levies; which could not as before, 
be supposed to be directed against the Athenians or Eretrians alone; but 
were evidently made, in contemplation of the entire subjugation of Greece; 
there is therefore no absolute necessity for limiting the composition of these 
lines to a date anterior to the battle of Marathon. That they could not 
have been written long after, seems probable, from what was before observ- 
ed ; that they mark the character of an Emigrant very lately returned, 
and from the probability, that a negotiation so simple in its nature, as that 
upon which his return depended, was not likely to have remained long in 
suspense. 

Most of the points here mentioned, will be found illustrated more at large 
in the running Commentary, which accompanies a series of translated Frag- 
ments, arranged in the order here proposed. — Such a work it was thought, 
might afford some amusement and information to the general reader, and to 
young persons not far advanced in classical studies ; affording at the same 
time, a ground-work for the formation of a very useful school-book; for it so 
happens; that in the whole mass of Greek literature which has remainedto us, 
nothing is to be found in a poetic form, which presents an easy introduction to 
the knowledge of the language; nothing which to the school-boy who began 
his Latin with Phsedrus and Ovid, presents similar facilities of easy construc- 
tion, short sentences, and a metre of quick recurrence, serving to fix in the 
memory the words and phrases which are gradually acquired. The scanty 
remnants of Tyrtceus, the short fragments of Solon, and some extracts from 
Anacreon form at present the only resources available for rudimental instruc 
tion. To this stock, it should seem, that nearly the whole of Theognis (with 
the exception of passages corrupt or otherwise objectionable) might be added ; 
for it will be found, that all the other fragments may be distributed in the 
order here proposed. — One point however must be mentioned, which has been 
omitted, and from a very humble motive. It appears that the Poet at some 
time previous to his emigration, describes the duties and qualifications of a 
Theorus (the Legate charged to consult and report the responses of the 



14 



THEOGNIS. 



Oracle at Delphi) in a manner which seems to imply, that he was either as- 
piring to that office or already in the exercise of it ; and it appears from an- 
other fragment that he was during the same period of his life, engaged in 
certain judicial functions connected with public worship. These are points, 
which as the writer has reason to suppose, that they may have been already 
elucidated in works which (from an ignorance of the language in which they 
are written) are to him inaccessible; he has judged it more expedient to pass 
over.* 

The motives which induce him to produce such a work, and to give it some- 
what of a more popular form, have been already explained ; in the mean time, 
a just difference to the judgement of more learned and accurate scholars, has 
dictated this essay, in which the main chronological conclusions, the result of 
much time and reflection bestowed upon the subject, are briefly, and to the 
best of his ability, as far as the obscurity of the subject will permit, distinctly 
stated. — 

* It appears from theKnights of Aristophanes (vl267) that this office of Theoruswas 
a convenient one for " distressed Gentlemen" a probable date might therefore be 
assigned to these lines, after the ruin of the Poets fortunes ; and before his emigration. 



j&ijnopste of Ijistartcal Pate*. 



The following Table may perhaps be convenient to the reader, as present- 
ing at one view the series of dates, which, is here assumed. 

Olympiad 59. A. C. 544. Theognis born in this Olympiad, and probably 
in the begining of it; for thirty nine years after, we find him and his friend 
Kurnus both in exile : Kurnus, who was the younger of the two, having been 
a short time before that event, placed in high office and authority. 

A. C. 525. Theognis in his 20th year, Simonides and Anacreon arrive at 
Athens, invited by Hipparchus, whose society presented a singular combina- 
tion of men of genius including Onomacritus and Lasus, the instructor of 
Pindar. Theognis cultivates the acquaintance of Simonides and Onomacritus : 
verses of a very juvenile character, and implying very familiar intercourse, 
are addressed to them both ; he appears to have been celebrated at a very 
early age for poetry of a light and licentious character, for in his first serious 
verses addressed to Kurnus, he speaks of his poetical reputation as being al- 
ready very extensviely diffused. These serious verses are communicated to 
his friend under a strict injunction of secrecy; and if we suppose, as is other- 
wise probable, that they, were composed in the last years of Hipparchus' 
reign, and remained undivulged at the period of his death, the supposition 
will serve to account, for what would otherwise appear extraodinary. The 
assassination of Hipparchus occurred in the 3rd. year of the 66th. Olympiad 
A. C. 514. in the 31st year of Theognis* age, and it is singular, considering 
the apparant congeniality of their characters, and the sympathy, implied in 
their joint partiality to the same individual (Simonides) that Theognis speaks 
so slightingly of the ceremonies of his funeral; which he even refuses to attend 
and expresses his persuasion, that the deceased entertained little or no re- 
gard for him ; such a feeling however, upon the supposition before stated, 



16 



THEOGNIS. 



might have been perfectly natural. His serious and moral poetry had re- 
mained a secret communicated only to his most intimate friend; while his 
reputation for poetry of a different character was widely extended; but such 
a reputation, though it might attract notice, would not have recommended 
him to the esteem and friendship of a person like Hipparchus, who cultivated 
and encouraged poetry as an instrument of moral improvement, and a means 
of practical benefit to society. We are apt (and this appears to have been 
the case with Theognis) to feel resentment mixed with our mortification at a 
disparaging estimate ; and our irritation is not much diminished by the con- 
sideration, that the person by whom this unfavourable estimate is formed, 
has in fact formed it fairly, in reference to our apparent merits and character: 
we still regard it as a kind of injustice to be deprived of that consideration 
which, though the title has never been produced, we nevertheless feel to be 
our due. Of the two next events which are recorded in history, and which 
were likely to have produced a strong impression in the adjoining state of 
Megara, the expulsion of Hippias took place (see Fasti Hellenici.) A. C. 510 
in the 35th year of Theognis' age. 

The reform of Cleisthenes, including a total overthrow of the ancient 
Aristocratic government of Athens must have been effected, (as may be 
inferred from the tables of Prof. Muller,) in the following year. A. C. 509 
in the 36th of Theognis 

No allusion to either of these events is to be found in the scanty, remains 
of his poetry which have been preserved to us. It seems certain however, 
that about this time, and probably in some degree from the influence of 
foreign example, that revolution must have taken place in Megara, which 
the Poet, judging only from the necessary, operation of internal causes, had 
some years before, in his first moral and serious verses, pronounced to 
be inevitable. This revolution does not appear to have been a hasty in- 
surrectionary moveme nt, but to have proceeded gradually and regularly 
to a Crisis which obliged the Poet and his friend Kurnus, suddenly to leave 
the Country. 

The third expedition of Cleomenes took place according to Professor Muller 
in the year A. C 506 in the 39th year of Theognis; he was at this time an Exile, 
living in d Eubaea, and an eye witness of the devastation of the Lelantian plain, 



THEOGNIS. 



17 



which took place in consequence of th e defeat of the Thebans and Chalcideans, 
immediately subsequent to the failure of Cleomenes' expedition. We then 
find him at Thebes, living as an Exile ; indulging for a while the hopes of a 
triumphant restoration ; finally disgusted with the associates, endeavouring, 
and failing in his endeavour, to conciliate the faction by which he had been 
expelled ; and ultimately determining to seek his fortune for himself. 

The next historical date places him at Syracuse, at the time of the Siege, 
an event, which Herodotus (who enumerates Syracuse among the cities 
besieged by Gelo) mentions as having been preceded by the overthrow of 
the Syracusian army on the banks of the Elorus, 

The first year of the 72nd. Olympiad is assigned by Professor Muller, as 
an approximate date to this Battle ; we may perhaps assume the same date 
for the siege by which it was immediately followed, viz: A. C. 492 the 53rd. 
year of Theognis' age ; 

Here then, we have from the last known date A. C, 506 (the time when 
he was driven from Eubaea) an interval of fourteen years, of which if we allot 
two to his residence at Thebes, which is a large admission ; considering that 
the stock of money when he emigrated, was little or nothing, and his stock of 
patience apparently, not very ample; there would then remain twelve years; 
during which, renouncing all incumbrances of rank and birth, he devoted 
himself earnestly, after the manner of his old instructor Simonides, to the 
acquisition of money, spending in the mean time as little as possible, and re- 
joicing in the increasing amount of his accumulations. His return appears 
evidently to have been a peculiar act of indulgence and exception obtained, 
in his favor from the ruling party in Megara, the same by which he had been 
expelled fourteen years before. That such a favor should have been granted 
to a single individual, living in a situation so remote as that of Syracuse, 
implies the agency of some very able and influential person ; and some for- 
tunate concurrence of circumstances, affording him in the first instance, an 
opportunity of securing the services and good offices of a person of this 
description. Such an opportunity appears to have presented itself, in the ar- 
rival of the Corinthian deputy, who in conjunction with the Corcyreans, suc- 
ceeded in persuading Gelo to raise the siege of Syracuse, and to rest satisfied 
with the cession of Camerina. 



18 



THEOGNIS. 



(See Fragt. 
CI.) 



(Fragt. CV.) 



That some citizen of Corinth of distinguished political ability and address 
was in some way connected with the Poet's return, and exerting himself to 
effect it, seems to be the fact, which lies at the bottom of the, otherwise inex- 
plicable episode of the story of Sisyphus whatever difficulty there may appear 
in supposing him at this time to have amassed a satisfactory amount of pro- 
perty, will appear much less than that, which is involved in the opposite 
alternative, which would suppose a similar advantageous opportunity to have 
occurred a second time, and to have been accompanied with the same 
circumstance of an able and influential citizen of Corinth undertaking on the 
Poet's behalf (like the fabulous old politician, his own countryman) to con- 
ciliate Persephone, the Persephone of Megara, the power from which a 
grant of Amnesty was to be obtained. 

His actual return was preceded by a short residence in the Peloponnese 
and a visit to Sparta, during which time, the negotiation for his readmission 
to Megera was brought to a conclusion by the assistance of his friend 
and the sacrifice of a little money. If we suppose him to have returned at 
the eve of the battle of Marathon. 

A. C. 490 he would have been in his 55th. year, and in this supposition 
there is little difficulty; the fears of a Persian invasian indeed were not ter- 
minated by that battle, but the manner in which old age is spoken of in the 
same lines does not appear suitable to a more advanced period of life. 

With the exception of some lines belonging to a later and undeterminate 
time, when he was occupied in arranging, reciting and publishing his collected 
stock of Poetry, there are no existing verses of Theognis which can be assign- 
ed to a later date than that of the period immediately subsequent to his return, 
The verses marking his ungracious reception by his own family must have 
been composed when the impression was recent 



THEOGNIS. 

- OOOQ ^ QQQO 

The verses of Theognis, which in a regular arrangement of his Fragments 
appear entitled to stand as the first of the Series, are those which represent 
him as a prosperous young Heir just entering into life, and looking forward 
to the enjoyment of pleasure and happiness. His vows are addressed to Ju- 
piter as the Sovereign Deity, and to his own immediate patron, Apollo, the 
Founder and Protector of Megara. — We shall see, that at a later period, (in 
anticipation of the Persian invasion,) his vows are addressed separately to 
the same two Deities. 

I. 
Guided and aided by their holy will, 
Jove and Apollo, may they guard me still, 
My course of Youth in safety to fulfill : 
Free from all evil, happy with my Wealth, 
In joyous easy years of Peace and Health. 

His amusements and accomplishments at this time, his fondness for 
the Pipe, which he delighted to accompany (for it was not allowable for a 
Gentleman to play upon so ungainly an instrument) and the pleasure which 
he took in playing on that graver and more decorous instrument the lyre, are 
expressed in another fragment 

II. 

My Heart exults the lively call obeying, 

When the shrill merry Pipes are sweetly playing : 

With these to chaunt aloud, or to recite, 

To carol and carouse, is my delight : 

Or in a steadfast tone, bolder and higher, 
To temper with a touch the manly Lyre. 



20 



THEOGNIS. 



It will be seen hereafter, that these lines were in all probability com- 
posed at a later period; — but the very argument by which that probability is 
supported, will show that the cultivation of this talent, must have been the 
pursuit of his early youth ; and that he had attained to great perfection in it. 

Other verses evidently composed in his early years (but of which the first 
lines are untranslatable) terminate in professing his fondness for this kind of 
Music. 

III. 

To revel with the Pipe, to chaunt and sing, 
This likewise is a most delightful thing — 

Give me but Ease and Pleasure ! What care I 
For Reputation or for Property ? ! 

It will be curious, if the reader should attain to the end of these pages, to 
look back upon this passage; and to see Theognis, in his graver and more 
parsimonious years, repeating this last sentiment, as that of the silly Spend- 
thrift whom he is there describing; the very sort of character, he had before 
exhibited in his own person. ! 

It will be seen elsewhere, that his passion for this kind of Music, betrayed 
him on the one hand into some absurdities ; and again, after his misfortunes, 
was among the means, by whichhe contrived to maintain himself, and to reac- 
quire a competence But, we are now considering him in the period of his 

Youth and Prosperity. His eagerness in the pursuit of Knowledge is strongly 
marked in a passage which (in whatever period it may have been produced) 
serves to indicate a feeling, which is always strongest in early Youth. 

IV. 

Learning and Wealth, the wise and wealthy find \ 
Inadequate to satisfy the mind ; £ 

A craving eagerness remains behind; 3 

Something is left, for which we cannot rest ; 
And the last something always seems the best 
Something unknown, or something unpossest 



•i 



THEOGiNUS. 



21 



Young Mr. Theognis, as it should seem, from his own poetical statement, 
had succeeded in seducing a woman ; unfortunately however, after a time ; 
his delicacy was alarmed, by the discovery of a rival or rivals: hereupon 
he resolves either to transfer the same virtuous attachment elsewhere, or 
to diffuse it liberally and promiscuously. — These circumstances and this 
resolution, so singularly calculated to attract approbation and sympathy, are 
here recorded by the Author, both as a credit to himself, and an example 
to posterity ; according to the worthy practice of what are called Amatory 
Poets. ! 

V. 

My thirst was sated at a secret source, 
I found it clear and limpid 5 but its course 
Is alter'd now ; polluted and impure ! 
I leave it; and where other springs allure. 
Shall wander forth ; or freely quaff my fill 
From the loose current of the flowing rill 



We may now proceed to the congenial, and equally edifying subject, of 
hard drinking. 

It is observable however, that even here, Theognis exhibits traces of a 
peculiar mind; in a tendency to general remark and fixed method — " 1 sought 
" in my heart to give myself unto wine (yet acquainting my heart with wisdom) 
" and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the Sons of 
" Men, that they should do under Heaven all the days of their life." — Such is 
the account which the Hebrew writer of proverbs is supposed to give of him- 
self ; and perhaps, it would have applied equally to the Grecian; but, in 
Theognis, we see the actual course of experiment, arising from a spirit of 
systematic curiosity; whereas in the book of Ecclesiastes, assumed, to have 
been written upon a retrospect, we have the motives and the result. 



22 



THE0GN1S. 



* Hippias and 
Hipparchus the 
Sons of Peisis- 
tratus joint nil 
ers of Athens. 



vr. 

To prove our Gold or Silver coarse or fine, 
Fire is the test ; for Man the proof is Wine : 
Wine can unravel secrets, and detect } 

And bring to shame the proudest intellect, > 
Hurried and overborn with its effect. J 

The folio wing lines are curious, as affording a chronological approximation. 
Onomacritus to whom they are addressed (but whose name could not easily 
be brought into an English verse) was a favorite of Hipparchus but afterwards 
banished by him for a sacrilegious forgery ; Being at the time, the Curator 
of a collection of oracles in the possession of the two brothers * he had 
been detected in a willful interpolation. — If we take the middle of the fourteen 
years of Hipparchus' reign, as the probable date of these lines, they would 
have been composed by Theognis at the age of 23 or 24 which considering 
the nature of the subject, seems probable enough. 

VII. 

My Brain grows dizzy, whirl'd and overthrown 
With Wine ; my senses are no more my own ; 
The Ceiling and the Walls are wheeling round. 

But, let me try — ! perhaps my limbs are sound: 
Let me retire ; with my remaining sense, 
For fear of idle language and offence. ! 

The next fragment isaddressed to Simonides; Simonides had been invited 
to Athens by Hipparchus, aud attached to his service and society by liberal 
payments and presents. Onomacritus and he were probably joint visitors 
at Megara, or Theognis might have joined their society at Athens. The Lines 
seem to have been written about the same time ; and during the same par- 
oxism of experimental conviviality as the preceeding. Theognis, who in his 
own opinion, is not more drunk than a man ought to be, remonstrates with 
Simonides, who being President of the meeting and further advanced in 
liquor, had become overbearing and absurd. Theognis, as in the former 



THEOGNIS. 



23 



fragment, takes his leave, being apprehensive of exceeding the precise bounds 
of inebriety which he had prescribed to himself. These lines shew great 
previous familiarity and the petulance of a young man, who takes upon him- 
self to give a lecture to his friend and Instructor on the principles of the sub- 
lime art of scavoir vivre — Such a lecture coming from a senior, would have 
been felt seriously, as an offensive reprimand. 

VIII. 

Never oblige your company to stay ! 

Never detain a man ; nor send away ! 

Nor rouse from his repose, the weary guest, 

That sinks upon the couch with wine oppress't ! 

These formal rules enforced, against the will, 
Are found offensive — Let the Bearer fill 
Just as we please — freely to drink away ; 
Such merry meetings come not every day. 

For me ; — since for to night, my stint is finishM, 
Before my common sense is more diminish' d ; 
I shall retire (the rule, I think is right) 
Not absolutely drunk, nor sober quite. 

For he that drinks beyond the proper point 
Puts his own sense and judgement out of joint, 
Talking ourageous, idle, empty stuff; 
(The mere effect of wine more than enough) 
Telling a thousand things, that on the morrow, 
He recollects with sober shame and sorrow: 
At other times, and in his proper nature, 
An easy, quite, and amiable creature. 

Now, you Simonides, mind what I say ! ~j 
You chatter in your cups and prate away A 
Like a poor slave, drunk on a holiday. ) 
You never can resolve to leave your liquor, 
The faster it comes round, you drink the quicker — 



24 



THEOGNIS. 



There's some excuse — " The Slave has filPd the cup 
A Challenge — or a Pledge" — you drink it np ! 
"'Tis a Libation" — and you're so devout, 
You can't refuse it ! — Manly brains and stout 
Might stand the trial, drinking hard and fast, 
And keep their sense and judgment to the last. 

Farewell! be merry! may your hours be spent,} 
Without a quarel ! or an argument, > 

In inoffensive, easy merriment ; J 

Like a good concert keeping time and measure 
Such entertainments give the truest pleasure. 

These verses are not very elegant nor very dignified; and if they were, 
they would not be a just representation of the original: we may however 
consent to read them as we do others of no greater merit in our own language, 
in illustration of the tone and manners of the time to which they belong. In 
both we have natural unelevated prose conveyed in the form of metre. This 
seems to be the proper style of Theognis, when not raised above himself by 
passion or feeling or by the higher character of his subject. — We now pro- 
ceed to his moral and political verses which (as mankind are usually more 
ashamed of wisdom than of folly, or from prudential reasons more cautious 
in concealing it) seem to have been suppressed for a time, and to have been 
communicated to his most intimate friend under an inunction of secrecy. 

IX. 
Kurnus, these lines of mine, let them remain 
Conceal' d and secret — verse of such a strain 
Betrays its author — all the world would know it ! 
« This is Theognis, the Megarian poet, 
« So celebrated and renown' d in Greece !» 
Yet some there are, forsooth, I cannot please ; 
Nor ever could contrive, with all my skill, 
To gain the common liking and good will 
Of these my fellow Citizens. — No wonder ! 



THEOGNIS. 



25 



Not even He ? the God that wields the thunder 
(The Sovereign all-wise almighty Jove) 
Can please them with his government above : 
Some call for rainy weather, some for dry, 
A discontented and discordant cry 
Fills all the Earth, and reaches to the Sky. 



! 



In a passage preserved to us, by Stobseus, Xenophon, after quoting from 
the preceeding fragment, the fourth line of the translation, proceeds to con- 
nect it with the fragment which follows; explaining it in his own manner. 
"These are the verses of Theognis of Megara" — 'The subject which the poet 
'seems to me to have had in view, appears to have been simply a treatise on 
■ the good and bad qualities of Mankind. He treats of Man in the same manner 
' as a Writer would do of any other animal (of Horses for instance) his exordium 
'seems tome, a perfectly proper one; for he begins with the subject of breed; 
'considering, that neither men nor any other animals, are likely to prove good 
'for any thing, unless they are produced from a good stock. He illustrates his 
' principle, by a reference to those animals in which breed is strictly attended 
'to; these lines therefore, are not merely an invective against the mercenary 
'spirit of his countrymen (as the generality of readers imagine) they seem to 
1 me to be directed against the negligence and ignorance of mankind in the 
'management and economy of their own species.' Such was the judgment of 
Xenophon upon this passage; different, as it should seem, from that of his 
Countrymen and contemporaries 

But we must recollect that the maintenance of a physical and personal 
superiority was considered as a point of paramount importance, by all the 
Aristocracies of Doric race. The Spartans, the most perfect type of such an 
Aristocracy, reared no infants who appeared likely to prove defective in form; 
and condemned their King Archidamus to a fine, for having married a diminu- 
tive wife. Xenophon himself, speaks of it elsewhere, as a well known fact, 
that the Spartans were eminently superior in strength and comeliness of per- 
son. — As a result of this principle, we can account for what would otherwise 
appear a very singular circumstance; that the most eminent of the Olympic 



26 



THE0GN1S. 



champions upon record, Diagor as andMilo, were both, of the most distinguish- 
ed families in their native Doric states, Rhodes and Crotona. — Xenophon 
therefore, who considered Theognis as belonging to a Doric Aristocracy; and 
who was himself a Dorian in his habits and partialities, interprets him more in 
a physical, than in a moral sense; and considers misalliances as a cause, 
rather than a consequence of the debasement of the higher orders. 

X. 

With Kine and Horses, Kurnus ! we proceed 
By reasonable rules, and choose a breed 
For profit and increase, at any price ; 
Of a sound stock, without defect or vice. 

But, in the daily matches that we make, 
The price is every thing ; for money's sake, 
Men marry ; Women are in marriage given : 
The Churl or Rufiian, that in wealth has thriven, 
May match his offspring with the proudest race : 
Thus every thing is mix'd, noble and base! 

If then in outward manner, form and mind, 
You find us a degraded, motley kind, 
Wonder no more my friend ! the cause is plain, 
And to lament the consequence is vain. 

From Birth, we proceed to Education. Here we find Theognis taking the 
same side with Pindar and Euripides, in a question, which seems to have been 
Ions: agitated in the Heathen world. "Whether Virtue and Vice were innate? 
concluding, like them, for the affirmative. This fragment is separated from the 
preceeding. Yet, according to the opinions of those times, there was a con- 
nection between them, and the process of thought is continuous. The exis- 
tence of the evil had been stated, and the Poet proceeds to argue, that it is 
not capable of being remedied by human contrivance — After which, in two 
succeeding fragments, we shall see him following the cause into its conse- 
quences, as exemplified in the degradation of the higher orders, and the 
comparative elevation of their former inferiors. 



THE0GN1S. 



27 



XL 



To rear a Child is easy, but to teach 
Morals and manners, is beyond our reach ; 
To make the foolish Wise, the wicked Good ; 
That Science never yet was understood. 

The sons of Esculapius, if their art 
Could remedy a perverse and wicked heart. 
Might earn enormous wages ! But in fact, 
The mind is not compounded and compact 
Of precept and example ; human Art 
In human Nature has no share or part 
Hatred of Vice, the fear of Shame and Sin 
Are things of native growth, not grafted in : 
Else wise and worthy parents might correct 
In children's hearts each error and defect ; 
Whereas, we see them disappointed still, 
No scheme nor artifice of human skill 
Can rectify the passions or the will. 



We now come to those fragments, which must have occasioned the 
injunctions of secrecy, and which mark the peculiarity of the Author's mind; 
He distinctly prognosticates an approaching Revolution originating in the 
misrule of the Party to which he himself naturally belonged; and of which 
his friend Kurnus was, if not the actual, the anticipated chief; for we shall see 
him driven from his country at an early age, after having been for some time 
at the head of the State. — He warns him of the rising intelligence and spirit 
of the lower Orders ; the feebleness, selfishness and falsehood of the higher ; 
and the discontent which their mode of government was exciting. 



28 



THEOGNIS. 



XII. 

Our Commonwealth preserves its former frame, 

Our Common People are no more the same : 

They, that in their skins and hides were rudely dress'd, 

Nor dreamt of law, nor sought to be redressM 

By rules of right ; but in the days of old 

Flock'd to the town, like Cattle to the fold ; 

Are now the brave and wise ; and we, the rest, 

(Their betters nominally, once the best) 

Degenerate, debased timid and mean! 

Who can endure to witness such a scene ? 

Their easy courtesies, the ready smile, 

Prompt to deride, to flatter and beguile ! 

Their utter disregard of right or wrong ; 

Of truth or honor !— Out of such a throng 

(For any difficulties, any need, 

For any bold design or manly deed) 

Never imagine you can choose a just 

Or steady friend, or faithful in his trust. 

But, change your habits ! let them go their way ! 
Be condescending, affable and gay! 
Adopt with every man, the style and tone 
Most courteous and congenial with his own! 
But, in your secret counsels keep aloof 
From feeble paltry souls ; that at the proof 
Of danger or distress, are sure to fail ; 
For whose salvation, nothing can avail ! 

In the sixth line of the foregoing fragment the writer does not profess to 
have given an exact version of the original, which, to say the truth, he does 
not quite understand, but it is evident that the Poet is speaking of the former 
condition of the Commonalty as that of a Class of inferior animals. 



THEOGNIS. 



29 



XIII. 



?.<?-^ 



Our State is pregnant ; shortly to produce 
A rude Avenger of prolonged abuse 
The Commons hitherto seem soberminded, 
But their Superiors are corrupt and blinded. 

The rule of noble spirits brave and high 
Never endangered peace and harmony. 

The supercilious, arrogant pretence 
Of feeble minds ; weakness and insolence ; 
Justice and truth and law wrested aside 
By crafty shifts of avarice and pride ; 
These are our ruin Kurnus ! — never dream, 
(Tranquil and undisturbed as it may seem) 
Of future peace or safety to the state ; 
Bloodshed and strife will follow soon or late. 
Never imagine, that a ruinM land -\ 

Will trust her destiny to your command \ 
To be remodelPd by a single hand. j 



The meaning and intention of the writer (such as I conceive it) is not so 
clearly expressed either in the original or in the translation, as not to require 
a commentary. If expanded into its full dimensions, it would stand thus. 
"The governments by an Aristocracy of Caste, such as ours, have never 
been overthrown, while they have been directed by men of generous charac- 
ter, and resolute magnanimous spirits ; the danger does not arise, till they 
are succeeded by a poor spirited selfish generation, exercising the same arbi- 
trary authority with mean and mercenary views." 

In the concluding triplet, an enigmatic allusion to the views and expecta- 
tions of his friend, is expanded into an intelligible form. In the proceeding 



30 



THEOGN1S. 



generation,* the instances had not been unfrequent, of able men being invest- 
ed with discretionary power to re-organize a distracted commonwealth ; but 
this confidence had been in many instances abused ; the plenary power com- 
mitted to them for a time; having been converted into a permanent despotism. 
The poet therefore is warning his friend, that the Citizens of Megara are too 
wary to have recourse to such an expedient, and that his expectations of 
being invested with supreme authority, were not likely to be fulfilled. 



* Solon had been ridiculed and censured, for having missed the opportunity 
which was thus placed in his hands, of establishing himself as a despotic Ruler in 
Athens. — He himself describes in some admirable trochaic lines, the kind of language 
that was held by his aspiring, unscrupulous, scoundrelly cotemporaries. 

"Solon as a Politician shew'd a weak and empty mind, 
Destitute of resolution ; when the Destinies design'd, 
To reward and elevate him ; when the mighty Net was cast 
And the prey securely compass'd; undecided and aghast, 
He refrain'd and hesitated; 'till the noble, wealthy prize 
In an instant burst the tackle, and escap'd before his eyes 
I despise him for the failure, — for myself I fairly say 
'Only let me rule in Athens, for a year, a month, a day! 
' Then depose, assasinate, exterminate my name and kin ! 
' Murder and demolish all ! Flay me alive and tan my skin." ! 
To which he answers: — 

"Truth it is, that I declin'd, the bloody desperate career } 
Of tyrannical command; to rule alone and domineer, 
In my native happy Land, with arbitrary force and fear, 
Neither have I since repented ; unreproached, without a crime 
Placed alone, uparalleld among the statesmen of the time 

Flay me alive! and tan my skin ! The original, for which this phrase is given 
does not, 1 imagine, appear quite intelligible to the generality of readers. — The 
Writer who had long admired these lines, had never been able to account for the 
epithet GffTspov as applied to a wineskin, till the difficulty was accidentally solved, by 
a sight of the thing signified. — It is a wineskin in which the Maker has chosen to exhibit 
his skill, by including the extremities. — It was a kind of proverbial pledge, expressive 
of a readiness to submit to extreme suffering and hardship. — I will submit to be flayed 
and made into a wine skin! But a phrase, which had become trite and trivial, was 
not suited to the earnestness, with which Solons Politician is made to express him- 
self— He is represented as giving a new form and vivacity to the common phrase 
by specifying the particular sort of wine skin (the one already described) into which 
he would consent to be transformed. 



S 



THEOGNIS. 



31 



Upon this subject it is envious to observe, how frequently republics have 
felt the necessity of submitting to an uncontrolled irresponsible power. Even in 
Athens, to wards the end of the Peloponnesian War, the question seems to have 
been mooted in favour of Alcibiades.* — The Italian republics had recourse 
to Foreigners ; sometimes to a person of high rank, sometimes to a learned 
lawyer from Bologna, but always to a Foreigner. The precaution adopted by 
the Roman Republic was different; and proved a decided failure. They ap- 
pointed a board of Commissioners — The Decemvirs ! ! 

The following examples and warnings are adduced from traditional fable 
and later history. 



XIV. 



My friend I fear it! pride which overthrew \ 
The mighty Centaurs and their hardy crew ; \ 
Our pride will ruin us, your friends and you.) 



^/-<fz 



XV. 



Pride and oppressive rule destroyed the state 
Of the Magnesians — Such was Smyrna's fate 
Smyrna, the rich and Colophon the great ! 
And ours my Friend, will follow ; soon or late. 

Of the history of those governments, we know nothing, they were known 
to Theognis, probably by the poems of authors like himself ; one of whom 
(in a fragment accidentally preserved) speaks of his fellow citizens of Colo- 
phon, as overbearing and oppressive from the time of their first settlement." 
But the example of the Magnesians (whatever it may have been) seems to 
have presented to Theognis, the most opposite parallel to the state of Megara; 
accordingly, as an anxious nnd earnest adviser, regardless of repetition, he 
recurs to the conduct and fate of the Magnesian government, with a preface 
too, almost in the same words, as in frag: XIII. 



* see Frogs, 
the last lines 
of the Ante- 
pirema and 
v. 1451. 2, 3. 



32 



THEOGNIS 



XVI. 

Kurnus, our state is pregnant to produce 
The avenger of oppression and abuse ! 
The Birth (believe me) will not tarry long : 
For the same course of Outrage and of Wrong, 
Which ruined the Magnesian State of old, 
That very same, we witness and behold. 

In this state of things, the line of conduct which the Poet prescribed to 
himself, is explained in the following lines. 

XVII. 

I walk by rule and measure, and incline \ 
To neither side, but take an even line ; > 
Fix'd in a single purpose and design. ) 
With learning's happy gifts to celebrate, 
To civilize and dignify the State : 
Not leaguing with the discontented Crew, 
Nor with the Pround and Arbitrary Few. 

By an unavoidable consequence of his neutrality, he was (as it appears) 
blamed and abused on all sides, consoling himself, in the meantime, with 
the consciousness of his intellectual superiority. 

XVIIL 

That happy man, my friend, was never seen 

Nor born into the world, whom saucy spleen 

Forbore to scandalize ! I know not, I ! 

What they would have ? but whether I comply 

To join with others in pursuit of ill; 

Or keep myself aloof; they blame me still — 



THEOGNIS. 



33 



Such is my fortune ; never understood, 
But censur'd by the wicked or the good ! 

My consolation still remains the same ; 
Fools cannot imitate the Man they blame. 



In poetry, which is evidently in every instance suggested by circumstan- 
ces; and which in its style approaches to the language of conversation ; we 
must not be surprized, any more than we should be in actual conversation ; to 
find the same person at different times, repeating occasionally the same 
thoughts and expressions. The following fragment is almost entirely a re- 
petition from fragments IX and X VIII. 

XIX. 

That happy man, my friend ! that has through life 
PassM unobnoxious to reproach or strife .... 

.... Never existed yet ; nor ever will ! ! 
A Task there is, which Jove could not fulfill, 
Infinite power and wisdom both combined 
Would not avail to satisfy mankind. 

This sensibility to public opinion appears again strongly marked in the 
following fragment. 

XX. 

The generous and the brave, in common fame, 
From time to time encounter praise or blame ; 
The vulgar pass unheeded; none escape 
Scandal or insult in some form or shape. 
Most fortunate are those, alive or dead, 
Of whom the least is thought, the least is said. 



34 



THEOGNIS, 



The apparent contradiction which is to be found in this passage, exists 
also in the original. That his understanding was undervalued by the 
practical busy persons of the time, may be inferred from the following lines. 



XXL 

The worldly minded and the worldly wise, 
In ignorance and arrogance despise 
All talents and attainments but their own : 
Wisdom is theirs, they think ; and theirs alone. 
But no ! the Lessons of deceit and wrong, 
In point of fact, are neither hard nor long; 
And many know them ; — but a better Will, 
Prohibits some from practising their skill 
Some have a taste for good, and some for 111. 



■I 

li.) 



Of himself, in the mean time, as a practical politician, he speaks in sub- 
stance rather disqualifyingly. 

XXII. 

Many true counsels in this breast of mine 
Lie buried ; many a just and fair design : 
But inefficient, indolent and weak, 
I know my nature, and forbear to speak. 



The period of comparative happiness and tranquillity was now drawing 
to a close, and the Poet, whose mind had hitherto been only occasionally 
saddened by the prospect of approaching evils, was doomed to witness a Re- 
volution, to be stript of his property ; and some time after, forced to abandon 
his native city in company with his friend, and to commence a long course 
of exile and poverty. 



THEOCNIS. 



35 



The elements of a Revolution, as appears from the preceding fragments, 
were already in existence; but they were called into activity by the example 
of the powerful neighbouring State of Athens; where the murder of Hippar- 
chus, had been followed at the end of three years, by the expulsion of Hippias. 
upon which, the ancient form of Athenian government had been again es- 
tablished for a short time; after which, the weaker faction of the Nobility 
joining themselves with the People, effected an entire abolition of the Aristo- 
cracy of Caste: The very same species of Aristocracy, which was in existence 
in Megara ; but whose existence was threatened (as has been seen in the pre- 
ceding fragments) by its own misrule, and by the growing discontent of a 
more intelligent commonalty. A revolution therefore at Megara was una- 
voidable; and we shall see, that it took place accordingly. 

As a preface to the fragments which belong to this turbulent period, the 
lollowing lines, referring to the asassination of Hipparchus, and the splendour 
of his Fnneral may properly find their place. 

The question of obedience or resistance to a Sovereign de facto, as it was 
viewed in Greece, by a man of speculative and original mind, upwards of 
two thousand three hundred years ago ; may be considered as a matter of 
curiosity. 



XXIII. 

Court not a Tyrant's favour, nor combine 

To further his iniquitous design! 

But, if your faith is pledged; though late and loth, 



If Covenants have pass'd between you both ; 
Never assassinate him! keep your Oath! 
But should he still misuse his lawless power, 
To trample on the people, and devour: 
Depose or overturn him ; any how ! 
Your oath permits it, and the Gods allow. 



36 



THEOGNIS. 



The two following fragments are also found separate ; but thongh relat- 
ing to the same subject of a royal funeral, and appearing to be extracts from 
the same Poem, they have not the same mark of continuity as the two pre- 
ceding, and are therefore put separately. 

XXIV. 

I shall not join the Funeral Train, to go 
An idle follower in the pomp of woe: 
For why — no duty binds me ; nor would He, 
Their arbitary Chief, have monrn'd for me. 

XXV. 

I envy not these sumptuous Obsequies, 
The stately Car the purple canopies ; 
Much better pleased am I, remaining here, 
With cheaper equipage and better cheer. 
A couch of thorns, or an embroidered bed 
Are matters of indifference to the dead. 



Two fragments are found (singularly enough) in immediate juxta-position 
with each other, and with one of the preceding. The first of the two ap- 
pears to be descriptive of the character of Hipparchus ; and the second, to 
have been suggested by the sudden catastrophe which befell him. 

XXVI. 

Easy discourse with steady sense combined, 
Are rare endowments in a single mind. 



THEOGNIS. 



37 



XXVII. 

No costly sacrifice nor offerings given 

Can change the purpose of the Powers of Heaven ; 

Whatever Fate ordains, danger or hurt 

Or Death predestined, nothing can avert. 

In the following Fragment, the phrase 6 et; is evidently used in the same 
sense as its corresponding term, " The single person" which was so frequently 
employed in England during the ten years from 1650 to 1660 to signify an 
individual exercising the functions of royalty. 

XXVIII. 



The Sovereign Single Person — What cares he 
For Love or Hate, for Friend or Enemy ! ? 
— His single purpose is utility. 



Some remarks on the probable causes of this coldness of feeling towards 
Hipparchus will be found stated in the short Chronological Abstract, and may 
serve to illustrate this last Fragment. 

The exact order of time and events, in the short and confused period be- 
tween the commencement of the changes which took place at Megara, and 
the Emigration or Escape of Theognis and his friend; cannot be satisfactorily 
deduced from the Fragments which exist. It appear however that Theognis, 
by some means or other, was at a very early period deprived of the greater 
part of his property ; since two events are mentioned subsequent to his ruin 
and anterior to his flight from Megara. The first is the arrival of his friend 
Clearistus,* and of his old friend andt instructor Simonides; moreover two 
Seasons of the Year are mentioned ; ploughing and harvest. J That the loss 
of his property was in some way or other, the work of the opposite faction, is 
clear, from the circumstance of his looking to the triumph of his own friends, 
as the means of recovering it, and avenging himself upon those who had 
despoiled him of it, as he says, "With violence and outrage" but by what 



*LIX. fLXIII. 
JLX. and LXI. 



38 



THEOGNIS. 



LXIII. 



fLXX.LXXI 
LXXII. 



process, or under what pretence this spoliation was effected, it is by no means 
easy to conjecture. 

Kurnus in the mean time, had held the first authority in the State; for 
his deposition from the highest office will be found distinctly alluded to, in 
the verses occasioned by the visit of Simonides abovementioned.* The same 
verses shew, that the state of things had become, in consequence more des- 
perate; and it appears from another passage; that, under these circumstances, 
Theognis himself, had become the advocate of bold and violent measures, 
which up to that time, he had deprecated. 

Finally, the flight of the two friends from Megara was determined by the 
approach of an auxiliary force, dispatched (probably from Corinth,) as a rein- 
forcement to their opponents. These events must have succeeded to each 
other, within a short period of time ; for when the Athenians invaded Eubaea, 
Theognis was already an Exile. t 

Having now brought together the few Fragments which serve to illustrate 
the political condition of the community to which he belonged, and the 
situation and sentiments of the Poet himself, during the period anterior to the 
commencement of civil commotion; — It may be convenient to place under a 
single point of view, other passages referable to the same time, and illustra- 
tive of the character of the friend to whom these and other poems were ad- 
dressed; and to whose person and fortunes, (in spite of some occasional 
intervals of aversion and offence) he appears to have been most sincerely 
attached. They consist of advice, strictly personal; these which relate to the 
general aspect of affairs, having been given already. There are also remon- 
strances relative to misconduct and defect of character. — It being impossible 
to determine the order in wich they succeeded, they have been assembled 
promiscuously: — Those of Anger and reproach are classed apart. The con- 
duct which Theognis recommends to his friend in the first instance, is similar 
to that which he had prescribed to himself ; namely to remain indifferent 
between the two contending factions. 



THE0GN1S. 



39 



XXIX. 

If popular distrust and hate prevail, 
If saucy mutineers insult and rail, 
Fret not your eager spirit ! take a line 
Just, sober and discreet, the same as mine ! 

But, such advice was not likeJy to be followed; Kurnus appears to have 
been the spoiled child of his Friends and his Fellow citizens; the man, on whom 
his Party had placed their hopes ; possessing all the advantages of person, 
wealth, birth and abilities, accompanied with those defects, by which those 
advantages are so frequently counterbalanced ; and which in a similar, but 
more celebrated instance (that of Alcibiades) proved ruinous to their posses- 
sor. — He seems to have been at no pains to conceal his natural arrogance, or 
to dissemble his feelings of antipathy or contempt; and to have been (at 
one time at least) incapable of bending his mind to the performance of 
necessary but disagreeable duties. — This last defect is noted in the follow- 
ing lines; in which the sense of the original has been adhered to, though the 
expression has been unavoidably amplified. 

XXX. 

My friend, the feeling you can not correct, 

Will work at last a ruinous effect, 

To disappoint your hopes. You cannot learn 

To bear unpleasant things with unconcern ; 

Nor work without repugnance or disgust 

In Tasks, that ought to be performed, and must. 

In the choise of his associates and adherents, the conduct of Kurnus, seems 
to have been in contradiction with the advice of his friend. We have seen in 
in Frag: XII. that he warns him against placing any reliance on a particular 
class of persons, whom he there describes. Admonitions to the same effect 
are repeated in other instances. 



40 



THEOGN1S. 



The kind of qualities, which Theognis required in a friend, may serve to 
give a notion of the violent Character of the Times, and of the eritical con- 
dition of the Party, to which he belonged. 

XXXI. 



I care not for a Friend, that at my board -\ 
Talks pleasantly ; the Friend that will afford C 
Faithful assistance with his purse and sword j 
In need or danger; let that Friend be mine ! 
Fit for a bold and resolute design : 
Not for a conversation over wine ! ) 



) 



The two following fragments are nearly to the same effect. 

XXXII. 

Let no persuasive art tempt you to place 
Your confidence in crafty minds and base ! 
How can it answer ? Will their help avail 
When danger presses, and your foes assail ? 
The blessing which the Gods in bounty send, 
Will they consent to share it with a friend ? 

No ! — To bestrew the waves with scattered grain ! 
To cultivate the surface of the Main, 
Is not a task more absolutely vain, 
Than cultivating such Allies as these ; 
Fickle and unproductive as the seas ! 

Such are all baser minds ; never at rest, } 
With new demands importunately pressed £ 
A new pretension or a new request ; / 

Fill, foiPd with a refusal of the last, 
They disavow their obligations past. 



THEOGNIS. 



41 



But brave and gallant hearts are cheaply gain'd, 
Faithful adherents, easily retained ; 
Men that will never disavow the debt 
Of gratitude, or cancel or forget. 

XXXIII. 

The Civil Person (He that to your face 

Professing friendship, in another place 

Talks in an altered tone) is not the Man 

For determined hearty Partizan. 

Give me, the Comrade, eager to defend, 

And in his absence, vindicate a Friend ! 

Whose strong attachment will abide the brunt 

Of bitter altercation, and confront 

Calumnious outrage, with a fierce reproof: } 

Like brethren bred beneath a father's roof, ^ 

Friends, such as these, may serve for your behoof j 

— None others — Mark my words! and let them be \ 

FixM as a token in your memory, \ 

For aftertimes ; to make you think of me ! 3 

That nothing may be omitted, a fourth fragment on the same subject is 
subjoined, 

XXX IV. 

Never engage with a poltroon or craven, 
Avoid him Kurnus ; as a treacherous Haven!* 
Those friends, and hearty comrades as you think, 
(Ready to join you, when you feast and drink,) 
Those easy friends, from difficulty shrink. 



Sic in Orig. 



42 



THEOGNIS. 



For a shrew' d intellect, the best employ 
Is to detect a soul of base alloy ; 
No task is harder nor imports so much ; 
Silver or Gold, you prove it by the touch ; 
You separate the pure, discard the dross, 
And disregard the labor and the loss ; 

But, a friend's heart, base and adulterate, 
A friendly surface with a core of hate ! 
Of all the frauds, with which the Fates have curst 
Our simple easy nature, is the worst: 
Beyond the rest, ruinous in effect; — 
And of all others, hardest to detect, 

For Men's and Women's hearts you cannot try 
Before hand, like the Cattle that you buy. 
Nor human Wit nor Reason, when you treat} 
For such a purchase, can escape deceit ; > 
Fancy betrays us, and assists the cheat. J 

If these Fragments were considered separately, we might imagine that 
Theognis was exciting his friend to some violent measure, and exhorting him 
to surround himself with adherents capable of putting it in excecution : We 
shall see however elsewhere, that this was not the case ; and that he is only 
warning him (as we have already seen in the last lines of Frag: XII) against 
placing a false confidence in inefficient associates, and encumbering himself 
with the sort of burdensome and unprofitable dependency described in Frag. 
XXXII. The Athenian, Alcibiades, had been considered the hope and future 
support of the party of the Nobility to which he naturally belonged; till an im- 
patience of the superiority of older men, whose talents and services had placed 
them at the hea.d of that party, led him to connect himself with the popular 
faction. — Kurnus, either not meeting with the same obstacles to ascendency 
in his own party, or from whatever other reason, seemsto haveadhered to the 
cause of the Aristocracy of Megara, with perfect tenacity ; upholding, and par- 
taking in their worst abuses; as may be inferred from the remonstrances of his 
friend. 



THEOGNIS. 



43 



XXXV. 

Waste not your efforts, struggle not my friend, 
Idle and old abuses to defend! 
Take heed ! the very measures that you press, 
May bring repentance with their own success. 

We have seen in Frag : XIII that iniquitous and partial decisions formed 
one of the main grievances which endangered the public tranquility; and 
the following fragment expresses, though less distinctly than in the original, 
that Kurnus himself was a principal in iniquities of this kind. 

XXXVI. 

Kurnus proceed like me! Walk not awry! 
Nor trample on the bounds of property ! 

The commission of some other offence, (an offence against the Gods} 
probably something in the nature of sacrilege or perjury, is obscurely, as if 
unwillingly, intimated, and attributed to the bad associates with whom he was 
engaged. 

XXXVII. 

" Bad company breeds mischiefs Kurnus you 
Can prove that ancient proverb to be true 
In your own instance : You yourself were driven 
To an unrighteous act ; offending Heaven ! 

Of the prudential and practical defects in Kurnus's character, we have 
seen an instance in Frag: XXX. the following is probably of a much earlier 
date ; it seems to be the sort of advice suited to a young man just entering 
the world, but marks a degree of rashness and irritability in the character to 



44 



THEOGNIS. 



which such admonitions were addressed. The original is miserably mangled; 
two lines being evidently wanting between 203 and 204 since in this last, 
there is a pronoun without an antecedent, and a verb also (for Sdxet I appre- 
hend cannot be here in the imperative mood) without its nominative case. 
It should seem, that a person spoken of in an injurious manner, is the ante- 
cedent to the pronoun ; and the person so speaking (and who flatters himself 
that the absent person whom he has been abusing, will never hear of it) is 
the nominative case to the verb. The sense and intention of the original, 
though not literally interpreted, is at least intelligibly given in the following 
lines. 

XXXVIII. 

At entertainments, shew yourself discreet : 
Remember, that amongst the guests you meet, 
The absent have their friends ; and may be told 
Of rash or idle language which you hold. 

Learn to endure a jest — you may display 
Your courage elsewhere, in a better way. 

The last line of the original is left untranslated, it has no connection with 
the preceeding. and seems to mark another chasm, which it would not be 
easy to supply. The above have the appearance of being part of a series of 
Maxims ; but a propensity to anger and intemperate language, seems to be 
indicated in another fragment, apparently of later date than the former, 
but they are both probably earlier than any of the admonitory ones. 

XXXIX. 

Rash angry words, and spoken out of season, 

When passion has usurp M the throne of reason, 

Have ruin'd many — Passion is unjust, 

And for an idle transitory gust 

Of gratified revenge, dooms us to pay 

With long repentance at a later day. 



THEOGNIS. 



45 



A sort of Coriolanus-like insolence and contempt of the Commonalty is 
marked in the following. 

XL. 

The Gods send Insolence, to lead astray } 

The man whom Fortune and the Fates betray ; > 
P redestin'd to precipitate decay. j 

Wealth nurses Insolence, and wealth we findj 
When coupled with a poor and paltry mind s 
Is evermore with Insolence combined. ) 

Never in anger, with the meaner sort 
Be mov'd to a contemptuous harsh retort; 
Deriding their distresses ; nor despise 
In hasty speech, their wants and miseries. 

Jove holds the balance, and the Gods dispense 
For all Mankind, riches and indigence. 



Among the defects of Kurnus's character, one, not uncommonly incident 
to men of genius, but peculiarly unfortunate in a public man, seems to have 
been, a morbid fastidiousness, producing a sort of premature misanthropy; 
such at least is the inference deducible from the following lines. Observe too, 
that the last lines of Frag : X refer to Kurnus's contemptuous estimate of his 
contemporaries. 

XLI. 

Learn, Kurnus learn, to bear an easy mind; 
Accommodate your humour to mankind 
And human nature ; — Take it as you find ! 
A mixture of ingredients, good or bad 
Such are we all ; the best that can be had : 
The best are found defective; and the rest, 
For common use, are equal to the best. 



46 



THEOGNIS. 



Suppose it had be otherwise decreed — 

How could the buisness of the world proceed? 

Fairly examined, truly understood. 
No man is wholly bad, nor wholly good, 
Nor uniformly wise. In every case, 
Habit and accident, and Time and Place 
Affect us. 'Tis the Nature of the race ! 



Theognis's admonitions and suggestions in counteraction of this defect, 
are not very magnanimous; they resemble the concluding lines of frag- 
ment XII. 

XLII. 

Join with the world ! adopt with every man ; 
His party views, his temper and his plan! 
Strive to avoid offence ! study to please ! 
Like the sagacious Inmate of the Seas ; 
That, an accommodating colour brings, 
Conforming to the Rock to which he clings ; 
With every change of place, changing his hue ; 
The model for a Statesman, such as you! 



The bickerings and quarrels between Kurnus and his friend, since no 
precise order can be assigned to them, must be necessarily classed together ; 
though it is probable, they belong to very different periods, from the time of 
their first entrance into the world, to the date of their expatriation. That 
these quarrels took place in more instances than one, seems evident from the 
different position in which Theognis is placed. In one he intimates that he 
has been deceived, and his confidence abused ; in another, he deprecates un- 
relenting resentment for a slight offence ; in another, he speaks as a person 



THEOGNIS. 



47 



uDJustly calumniated ; Another fragment, which seems to have arisen out of 
the same circumstances, I should be inclined to assign to the time, when 
Kurnus was at the head of affairs; and when Theognis's fortunes were ruined; 
the others were probably anterior; but at what time or in what order, it is 
not easy to conjecture. 

In the absence of all other motives of choice, a fragment is placed here, 
similar in its tone to the last of the preceding series. There can be little 
doubt that the friend alluded to is Theognis, himself. 

XLIII. 

Let not a base calumnious pretence, 
Exaggerating a minute offence, 
Move you to wrong a Friend! if, every time, 
Faults in a friend were treated as a crime, 
Here upon earth, no friendship could have place. 
But we, the creatures of a faulty race 
Amongst ourselves, offend and are forgiven : 
Vengeance is the prerogative of Heaven. 

The following must have arisen out of some other ground of difference ; 
though indirectly expressed, it is evidently intended to bear a personal appli- 
cation. 



XLIV. 



A rival or antagonist is hard 

To be deceived; they stand upon their guard:/ 

But, an old friend, Kurnus, is unprepard ! 3 



x 



In the following, a feeling of coldness and distrust is marked on the part 
of the poet ; he is rejecting some proposal made to him by his friend, as tend- 
ing to engage and compromise him. 



48 



THEOGNIS. 



XLV. 






That Smith, dear Kurnus, shews but little wit 
Who forges fetters, his own feet to fit. 

Excuse me, Kurnus ; I can not comply 
Thus to be yokM in harness — never try 
To bind me strictly, with too close a tie. 



With respect to the next fragment, there can be no doubt ; it is sufficiently 
decided, and angry enough. 

XL VI. 

No more with empty phrase and speeches fine, 
Seek to delude me, let your heart be mine ! 
Your Friendship or your Enmity declare 
In a decided form, open and fair ! 
An enemy disguised, a friend in shew, 
— I like him better, Kurnus as a Foe! 



The next expresses a consciousness of innocence, and a defiance of un- 
just calumny. It is observable, that we find here, the same singular associa- 
tion of ideas (Water and Gold) as in the first lines of Pindar. In Pindar, they 
are probably meant to be significant, and to mark his Initation in the Mys- 
teries, in which the successive degrees were connected with these symbols; 
and He (the most scrupulous and devout of all heathen Poets) begins his 
book with them; upon the same principle as a Catholic (in some countries 
at least) begins his Letters with the sign of the cross. In Theognis, the asso- 
ciation may have been perhaps, an involuntary result. 



THEOGNIS. 



49 



XL VII. 

Yes ! Drench me with invective ! not a stain 
From all that angry deluge will remain ! 
Fair harmless Water, dripping from my skin, 
Will mark no foulness or defect within. 

As the pure standard Gold of ruddy hue, 
Prov'd by the touchstone, unalloyed and true ; 
Unstained by rust, untarnished to the sight ; 
Such, will you find me ; — Solid, pure and bright. 



This image of the trial of Gold seems from some reason or other, to have 
been peculiarly familiar to the Poet's mind. It occurs in Frag: VI. and 
XXXIV. and will be found again in verses composed during his exile Frag : 
LXXVIII. See the extraordinary work of Mr. Whiter on the association of 
ideas, considered as an instrument of criticism, and his application of it to 
the peculiar turns of transition observable in Shakespear. 

The two next relate apparently to minor differences ; in the first, the Poet 
is out of humour, at being in his turn advised and admonished. 

XL VIII. 

Change for the worse, is sooner understood, 
And sooner practised, than from bad to good. 
Do not advise and school me! good my Friend! 
Fm past the time to learn. — I cannot mend. 



The next treats of that useless and interminable question "Whose fault 
it was? 

XLIX. 

You blame me for an error not my own, 

Dear Friend ! the fault was yours, and yours alone. 



50 



THEOGNIS. 



The two following, look more like a decided rupture, than any of the fore- 
going; they seem both to belong to the same time; and the tone is similar; 
the services mentioned in the first, are insisted upon more at lenght in the 
second; (which seems to shew, that the obligation consisted in the celebrity 
conferred upon his friend, by the poetry in which his name was recorded.) 
A conjecture as to the time of their composition, has been already hazarded. 



My mind is in a strange distracted state ; 

Love you, I cannot! — and I cannot hate! 

; Tis hard to change habitual goodwill. 

Hard to renounce our better thoughts for ill, 

To love without return, is harder still. 

But mark my resolution and protest ! 

Those services, for which you once professed 

A sense of obligation due to me, 

On my part were gratuitous and free ; 

No Task had I, no duty to fulfil ; 

No motive, but a kind and friendly Will — 

Now, like a liberated Bird I fly, 
That having snapt the noose, ranges on high, 
Proud of his flight, and viewing in disdain 
The broken fetter and the baffled swain 
And his old haunt, the lowly marshy plain 

For you! the secret interested end, 
Of him your new pretended party friend, 
Whose instigation moved you to forego 
Tour former friendship, time will shortly shew; 
Time will unravel all the close design, 
And mark his merits, as compared with mine. 



,i 



THEOGNIS. 



51 



The second of these fragments has been injudiciously subdivided by Mr. 
Brunck: a gentleman, to whose memory, the cause of literature is deeply in- 
debted, for the zeal with which he attached himself to its service, with great 
acuteness, and an energy truly admirable; but whose edition of Theognis, 
though it has the merit of being the first, in which any attempt was made to 
mark the beginnings and ends of the separate fragments, (which had been 
fused into one uniform dense and unintelligible mass) bears nevertheless evi- 
dent marks of the haste and eagerness which enabled him to accomplish so 
many great works in so short a space of time. The fragment in question, 
whether perfect or not, is evidently one and indivisible; the argument 
throughout, being continuous. The expostulation is a full development of 
the allusion to former services and obligations expressed in the preceding 
(really a separate) fragment. It may be observed, that the similes in both, 
are parallel and to the same effect, expressing a renunciation of friendship, 
under the image of an escape from bondage. 

The argument, of the second fragment, if coarsely stated, would stand 
thus "I have conferred upon you, a celebrity similar to that which would 
have resulted to you from a victory at the Olympic Games" (the great object 
of personal ambition among the most eminent individuals and Sovereigns of 
the Grecian race ; and requiring for the chance of its attainment, a most 
profuse expenditure) "Moreover, the celebrity which I have thus gratuitously 
conferred upon you, is much more lasting, more brilliant and more extensive; 
but instead of any suitable return for such a service; you are so destitute of 
those first blessings, common sense and common justice, that you treat me 
with neglect ; and when, like every body else, I have an object, which I am 
anxious to obtain, you disregard my application to you. I am like one of 
those horses at the Olympic Games, which has acquired a celebrity for his 
master; but being ill treated, longs to escape." — Such would have been the 
remonstrance, if stated by a resolute hard bitten claimant. In the Poet's 
hands, it assumes a more poetical and delicate form, expatiating on the 
more graceful parts, and suppressing the undignified, he still leaves the solid 
logical substance distinctly discernible, under the texture with which he has 
invested it. 



52 



THE0GN1S. 



LI. 



You soar aloft, and over land and wave 
Are born triumphant on the wings I gave, 
(The swift and mighty wings, Music and Verse.) 
Your name in easy numbers smooth and terse, 
Is wafted o'er the world ; and heard among 
At banquetings and feasts, chaunted and sung, 
Heard and admired : The modulated air 
Of flutes and voices of the young and fair 
Recite it ; and to future times shall tell : 
When clos'd within the dark sepulchral Cell, 
Your form shall moulder ; and your empty ghost 
Wander along the dreary Stygian coast — 

Yet shall your memory flourish fresh and young, 
Recorded and revived on every tongue ; 
In Continents and Islands ; every place 
That owns the language of the Grecian race ! 

No purchased prowess of a racing steed, 
But the triumphant muse, with airy speed 
Shall bear it wide and far, o'er land and main, 
A glorious and unperishable strain ; 
A mighty prize, gratuitously won, 
FixM as the Earth, immortal as the Sun! 

But for all this no kindness in return! 
No token of attention or concern ! 
Baffled and scorn'd, you treat me like a child, 
From day to day, with empty words beguiPd. 
Remember ! common justice, common sense 
Are the best blessings which the Gods dispense : 
And each man has his object; all aspire 
To something which they covet and desire. 



THE0GN1S. 



53 



Like a fair courser, conqueror in the race ; 
Bound to a charioteer, sordid and base ; 
I feel it with disdain ; and many a day, 
Have long'd to break the curb, and burst away. 



To be celebrated by an eminent Poet, or to obtain the victory at the 
Olympic Games, were the only two means by which an individual belonging 
to one of the numberless petty States and Colonies of Greece (not being 
himself a poet) could aspire to that universal celebrity among his country- 
men, which was the common object of ambition among all the more 
gifted individuals of the race. — Hence arose a singular, and to modern ima- 
ginations, an unaccountable association of ideas : Muses and Horses ! we 
have seen it in the preceding fragment; and it is to be met with in Pindar; 
among other instances, in that fragment preserved by the humorous quo- 
tation of Aristophanes, where the begging poet comes with a ready made 
inaugural ode, which he pretends to have composed expressly on the oc- 
casion of the foundation of the famous city of Nephelococcugia Peisthetai- 
rus, the projector and acting manager of the concern, expresses his surprise 
and doubt — 

Peis "That's strange ! when I'm just sacrificing here, 
"For the first time; to give the town a name. 

To which, the Bard replies, in the phrase of Pindar 

"Intimations, swift as air, 
"To the Muse's ear are carried; 
"Swifter than the speed and force 
"Of the fiery-footed horse, 
"Hence, the tidings never tarried. 

We shall see in another fragment (XCIX.) that as Theognis, in this in- 
stance (where he speaks of the celebrity conferred by poetry) has tacitly so 
contrasted it with an Olympic victory ; so lie will be found, stating his own 



54 



THEOCNIS. 



claim to indulgence and consideration from his fellow citizens; under cover of 
the parallel case of a Conqueror at the games. In either case, the success of 
the victorious competitor or the applauded poet, would have reflected honor 
on his native state ; and we shall see, that what the poet will affirm of the one, 
he will leave to be inferred of the other ; namely that neither of them without 
a sacrifice of money, would have been able to obtain that indulgence which 
according to the feelings and opinions of the time, ought in such cases to 
have been extended to them honorably and gratuitously. 

We now come to the period of the Poet's misfortunes, beginning with the 
loss of his property; — indeed the two last fragments are in all probability 
subsequent to it. — Respecting the cause of this disaster, it is not easy to form 
a conjecture founded upon assumptions deducible from one passage, which is 
not liable to be overset by comparing it with others. A very unintelligible 
line, which (probably from the omission of an intervening couplet) has little 
relation to the preceding verse, seems to mark his misfortunes, as some how 
connected with a sea voyage : yet, notwithstanding the known propensity of the 
Greeks to trade and navigation, it seems difficult to conceive Theognis in the 
character of a Merchant adventurer. Allowing however, that what was true 
of Solon, (a poet also, and a Politician) might be equally true of Theognis, 
we find on the other hand, that he speaks of his ruin, not as the result of 
any casual mischance, but as the work of enemies, upon whom he hopes and 
prays to be revenged. But, does not this sea voyage allude to his emigra- 
tion by sea, after which, his property would have been confiscated ? No! ac- 
cording to all appearances, he escaped by land; and his first place of refuge 
seems to have been Eubcea, separate only from the main land by a very 
narrow channel ; and it will be seen from the fragments which follow, that he 
must have remained at Megara some time after being reduced to compara- 
tive poverty. We might have no difficulty in supposing, that in times of 
violent faction; the party opposed to Kurnus, if they forbore to make a 
direct attack upon him, might (like the party opposed to Pericles in their 
attacks upon Aspasia, Anaxagoras and Phidias) seek to discredit him, by 
ruining a person known to be attached to him: but there are no indications 
of this, in the passages where we should expect to find them. 



THEOGNIS. 



55 



If, from any other source, we could obtain a knowledge of Theognis' life 
and history, we might be able to account for some singularities: one of 
which, (his familiarity with the language of the Assay Office) has been already 
pointed out, in the note to Fragment XLVII, but there is another, not a little 
remarkable; namely, his strong objections and remonstrance against the rule 
of providence, by which the sins of the father were visited upon his descen- 
dants! — Can we suppose, that he is remonstrating with respect to his own 
case? that, as we have seen in Frag. XII. that judicial iniquity was the most 
crying grievance of the State ; so (as was the case in Rome, after the death 
of Sylla) it might have been among the first remedied ; and in a similar man- 
ner ; namely, by transferring the judicature, to another order of citizens : a 
measure which might give rise to a course of equal partiality in an opposite 
direction. Such a supposition would afford the best explanation of the state 
of alarm and confusion, short of actual violence, which filled the period an- 
tecedent to the Poet's emigration. Can we suppose, that while things were 
in this state, an old family law suit, (arising out of commercial matters, and 
unjustly decided in favor of his father or ancestor), had been revived under 
this new tribunal ; and that the sentence so ruinous to his fortune, was at the 
same time so arbitrary and excessive, as to excite the resentment and 
eagerness for revenge, which he expresses elsewhere ? 

The following lines, (Fragment LII.) might seem to relate to some confi- 
dential deposit; which perhaps in expectation of an unfavorable decision, he 
would have set apart as a contingent resource; but which was either treache- 
rously detained or surrendered to his adversary. 

Since writing the above, the following lines, which had not been noticed 
before, have appeared to bear a meaning referable to the suppositions above 
stated. 



Where on the father's and the mother's side 
Justice is found, no treasure you can hide, 
Is a resource more certain to abide. j 



) 



They certainly have the appearance of a general maxim, assumed for 
the sake of a particular application, and are such as might well have been 



56 



THEOGNIS. 



Sic in Orig. 

xal sv cpQopa 



written by a person who conceived himself suffering under a retribution for 
the injustice of his predecessors ; and whose mind was occupied at the same 
time, with the notion of providing some concealed resource, as a security 
against misfortune. The association of ideas is so singular, that some such 
supposition seems necessary to account for it. 
The result of his precaution appears as follows. 



LII. 



Bad faith hath ruined me ; distrust alone 
Has sav'd a remnant; all the rest is gone 
To ruin and the dogs!*— -The powers divine, 
I murmur not against them, nor repine : 
— Mere human violence, rapine and stealth 
Have brought me down to poverty, from wealth, 



The following is a soliloquy, in which he is endeavouring to bring his 
mind into a more composed state. 

LIIL 

Learn patience, my soul! though rack'd and torn 

With deep distress — Bear it! — it must be borne! 

Your unavailing hopes and vain regret, 

Forget them, or endeavour to forget : 

Those womanish repinings, unrepressM, 

(Which gratify your foes,) serve to molest 

Your sympathising friends — Learn to endure! 

And bear calamities you cannot cure ! 

Nor hope to change the laws of Destiny, 

By mortal efforts ! — Vainly would you fly 

To the remotest margin of the sky, 



i 



THEOGNIS. 



57 



Where Ocean meets the firmament ; in vain 
Would you descend beneath, and dive amain. 
Down to the dreary subterraneous reign. 



The following lines in a more composed and manly strain, seem to be- 
long to the same period. 

LIV. 

Entire and perfect happiness is never 
VouchsaPd to man ; but nobler minds endeavour 
To keep their inward sorrows unreveaPd. 
With meaner spirits, nothing is conceal' d : 
Weak, and unable to conform to fortune ; 
With rude rejoicing or complaint importune, 
They vent their exultation or distress. 
Whatever betides us, grief or happiness, 
The brave and wise, will bear with steady mind, 
Th' allotment unforeseen and undefined, 
Of good or evil, which the Gods bestow, 
Promiscuously dealt to man below. 



What has been said a little while ago, of Theognis' remonstrances against 
the rules of Providence, requires to be illustrated ; and the illustration may 
not improperly be placed here, as it is by no means improbable, that the 
verses might have been composed about this time. 

LV. 

mighty Jove ! I wish the Powers of Heaven 
Would change their method I that a rule were given 
Hence forward, for the wicked and profane, 
To check their high presumption, and restrain 



68 



THEOGNIS. 



Their insolences and their cruelties : 

Who mock your ordinances, and despise 

Justice and right: — Henceforth, should every man 

In his own instance, justify the plan 

Of Providence ; and suffer for his Crime 

During his Life ; or at the very time, 

With punishment inflicted on the spot : 

For now, so long retarded or forgot, 

The retribution ultimately falls 

Wide of the mark — the vilest Criminals 

Escape uninjured; and the sad decree 

Affects their innocent posterity, 

(As oftentimes it happens) worthy men 

Blameless and inoffensive — Here again 

The case is hard I where a good citizen. 

A person of an honorable mind, 

Religiously devout, faithful and kind, 

Is doomed to pay the lamentable score 

Of guilt accumulated long before. — 

— Some wicked Ancestor's unholy deed. 

— I wish that it were otherwise decreed ! 
For now, we witness wealth and power enjoy'd 
By wicked doers ; and the good destroyed 
Quite undeservedly; doomed to atone 
In other times, for actions not their own. 



The same notion of a posthumous hereditary retribution overtaking the 
descendants of wicked men, appears in another fragment, but without that 
tone of querulous expostulation, which marks the preceding and other 
fragments. 



THE0GN1S. 



59 



LVI. 

Lawful and honest gain, the gift of Heaven, 
Is lasting ; and abides where it is given. 
But where a man by perjury or by wrong. 
Rises in riches ; though secure and strong 
In common estimation (though he deem 
Himself a happy man, aud so may seem) 
Yet the just sentence on his wicked gains, 
Already stands recorded, and remains 
For execution — Hence, we judge amiss; 
And the true cause of our mistake in this : 

The Punishment ordainM by Heaven's decree 
Attaches to the Sin, but (as we see 
In many cases) leaves the Sinner free — 
— Death follows, and is faster in his rate, 
While Vengeance travels slowly; speedy Fate 
Arrests the offender at a shorter date. 



The same tone of querulousness which was before noticed and the same 
singular style of respectful, but confident and familiar expostulation with 
the Deity; which the reader will have observed in a preceding fragment, is 
marked in another, which is placed here j though in the order of time, it 
should seem to be contemporary with Frag. LXXVIII and LXXIX 

LVII. 

Blessed, almighty Jove ! with deep amaze, 
I view the world ; — and marvel at thy ways ! 
All our devices, every subtle plan, 
Each secret act, and all the thoughts of man, 
Your boundless intellect can comprehend ! 
— On your award our destinies depend. 



60 



THEOGNIS. 



j 



How can you reconcile it to your sense 
Of right and wrong, thus loosely to dispense 
Your bounties, on the wicked and the good ? 
How can your laws be known or understood? 
When we behold a man faithful and just, 
Humbly devout, true to his word and trust, 
Dejected and oppressed: — whilst the profane, 
And wicked, and unjust, in glory reign ; 
Proudly, triumphant, flushed with power and gain 
What inference can human reason draw? 
How can we guess the secret of thy law ; 
Or choose the path approved by power divine ? ! 
— We take, alas, perforce the crooked line, 
And act unwillingly the baser part, 
Though loving truth and justice at our heart ; 
For very need, reluctantly compelPd 
To falsify the principles we held ; 
With party factions, basely to comply ; 
To flatter, and dissemble and to lie ! 

Yet He — -the truly brave — tried by the test 
Of sharp misfortune ; is approved the best : 
While the soul-searching power of indigence 
Confounds the weak, and banishes pretence. 

Fixt in an honorable purpose still, 
The brave preserve the same unconquer'd will 
Indifferent to fortune, good or ill. 



The misery of the heathen world is singularly manifest in the preceding 
lines; they were unable to find in their national belief, any sanction even for 
those imperfect notions of right and wrong, which natural reason suggested 
to them; and the concluding passage shews, that the better and nobler 



THEOGNIS, 



61 



minds among them, framed to themselves a rule of conduct, more elevated 
than that which their religion authorized. Their mode of piety, consisting in 
patient submission to the dispensations of an irrestible and inexplicable de- 
stiny, is exemplified in the lines which follow. 



LVIII. 

Kurnus, believe it! Fortune, good or ill 
No mortal effort, intellect or skill 
Determine it, but heaven's superior will 
We struggle onward, ignorant and blind, 
For a result, unknown and undesign'd, 
Avoiding seeming ills, misunderstood, 
Embracing evil as a seeming good : 
In our own plans, unable to detect 
Their final unavoidable effect. 
Tormented with unsatisfied desire, 
The fortunate, to further aims aspire, 
Beyond the bounds of mortal happiness ; 
Restless and wretched in their own success ! 
We strive like children, and the almighty plan 
Controls the froward, weak Children of Man ! 



We may now return from his metaphysical and moral speculations, to a 
view of the Poet's personal situation*, it is described in a few lines of welcome 
to a friend connected with him by those relations of hospitality, which were 
most carefully mantained by the first families of Greece, as a resource against 
utter destitution, in the event of any of those sudden reverses of fortune, to 
which, from the unsettled condition of their governments, they were so fre- 
quently exposed — Clearistus, being ruined or distressed at home, comes by 
sea to Megara; probably on a trading voyage; but reckoning at the same 
time, on the hospitality of the poet, as his hereditary Ally. 



62 



THE0GN1S. 



LIX. 

In a frail bark, across the seas you come, 
Poor Clearistus, to my poorer home ! 
Yet, shall your needy vessel be supplied 
With what the Gods' in clemency provide : 
And if a friend be with you, bring him here ! 
With a fair welcome to my simple cheer. 
I am not yet a niggard, nor by stealth 
Dissemble the poor remnant of my wealth : 
Still shall you find a hospitable board, 
And share in common, what my means afford. 

Then, should enquirers ask my present state, 
You may reply, — my ruin has been great: 
Yet, with my means reduced, a ruin'd man, 
I live contented, on a humbler plan ; 
Unable now, to welcome every guest ; 
But greeting gladly and freely, though distressed 
Hereditary friends, of all the best. 



A natural incident brings back to his mind, the recollection of his misfor- 
tunes — this fragment concludes with the obscure line beforementioned, rela 
tive to a sea voyage. 

LX. 

The yearly summons of the creaking Crane, i 
That warns the ploughman to his task again, v 
Strikes to my heart, a melancholy strain. 3 
When all is lost, and my paternal lands 
Are thTd for other lords, with other hands : 
Since that disastrous wretched voyage brought 
Riches and lands, and every thing to nought : 



THEOGNJS 



63 



The following is an incident relative to another season of the year. 
Theognis' passion for singing to the music of the pipe, has been already no- 
ticed (Frag. II.) the scene of this fragment is in the market-place of Megara; 
and the lines represent the poet's sudden exclamation, at a sight which puts 
an end to the amusement in which he was indulging. The text is apparently 
mutilated, and (to the translator at least) hardly intelligible; he has endea- 
voured however to restore the original picture from the traces which are 
still distinguishable. 

LXI. 

How could I bear it?! In the public place 
To chaunt and revel ! When before my face, 
Seen in the distance, I discern the train 
Of harvest-triumph ; and the loaded wain 
And happy labourers with garlands crown'd, 
Returning from the hereditary ground, 
No more my own ! My faithful Scythian slave ! 
Break off this strain of idle mirth ; and shave 
Your flowing locks ; and breathe another tone 
Of sorrow for my fair possessions gone! 



Independent of the unbecoming contrast between the levity of his amuse- 
ments, and the serious nature of his misfortunes; the reflection could not but 
occur to the mind of the poet, that he was now arrived at a time of life, 
when the privileges and pretensions of early youth could no longer be 
pleaded in justification of similar frolics. — In minds of a poetic temperament, 
the spirit of childhood and early youth remains commonly unabated to a 
much longer period than among the generality of mankind ; and those suc- 
cessive gradations of gravity, which maturer years require (and which their 
co-evals assume naturally and unconsciously) are often felt as oppressive re- 
straints, by minds so constituted — Hence, in such cases, we see the same 
individuals censured for untimely levity in their latter years; as they had 



64 



THEOGNIS. 



Compare Frag, 
CII. with CV. 



been before, for premature seriousness. Theognis, in this respect at least, 
appears to have been eminently a poet. His feelings of melancholy foresight 
were contemporary with the composition of his licentious poetry; and 
among other considerations, this probably may have been one, which induced 
him to suppress for the time, those verses, which a more serious spirit had 
inspired. — He was unwilling to betray to the world, such incongruities of 
thought and feeling, subsisting at the same time, in the same mind. The 
same incongruity is visible in a comparison between the last fragment, and 
those already given ; Nrs. LIII, LIV, and LV. 

Omitting these considerations however ; and considering him merely as 
a man of wit and pleasure about town — the town of Megara — the period of 
life to which he had arrived, was a melancholy one ; already on the wrong 
side of five and thirty, and having immediately before him, the prospect of 
lapsing into the deplorable and irretrievable condition of a decayed dandy or 
cidevant jeune homme ! — This is the first shock which we receive from the 
hand of time. The second will be found differently characterized, in verses 
composed at the age of 54. — It was then no longer the departure of youth, 
and prospect of age, but the slow and distant approach of death, which was 
become, for the first time, a torment to his imagination. It will appear sin- 
gular, that in verses composed probably not many months after those last 
mentioned, he will still be found speaking of old age, as a future evil, of which 
he deprecates the approach — but so it is; 

"Ask, where's the north? In York, 'tis at the Tweed; 

"In Scotland, at the Orcades ; and there, 

"At Zembla, Greenland, and the Lord knows where." 

In like manner, old age is always a relative period, a little in advance of 
that to which we have already arrived. The fragment here given, and the 
somewhat tedious argument with which it is accompanied, might have been 
omitted; if the writer had not thought it his duty, for the satisfaction of others, 
to give a solution of the apparent contradictions, by which his own research 
had been at one time perplexed. 



THEOGNIS, 



65 



LXIL 

Elate with wine, my losses I despise, 

And rude attacks of railing enemies. 

But youth departing, and remembered years 

Of early mirth and joy, move me to tears ; 

While, in the dreary future, I behold 

The dark approach of age, cherleess and cold. 



It is evident, that these lines must have been written in the period which 
immediately preceded his banishment, when the ruin of his affairs was a 
recent event, and his adversaries animated against him. He was not yet in 
exile, for the avSps? HyQpoi his railing enemies must have been his fellow ci- 
tizens of the opposite faction; not strangers among whom he was casually 
resident. Moreover, to lament the departure of his youth, would have been 
absurd and impertinent in an Exile, subject to so many evils of a much more 
serious nature.* An older Poet had said 

"A wanderer of this kind, neither enjoys the favor and popularity (wprj) 
which accompanies youth, nor the respect and reverence (a'Sw?) which is 
attendant upon old age." — It is equally impossible to assign them to the 
period after his return ; for which he was indebted to the indulgence of the 
faction, to which those very sx^P ^ wno were now abusing him, belonged ; 
and when he himself was devoted to a passive literary existence. 

The melancholy thoughts which in the spirit of a true Greek, he was en- 
deavouring to dissipate (as has been seen in the two last fragments) with wine 
and music; but which were apt to return upon him, thus suddenly and un- 
awares; seem to have been revived by the arrival of Simonides. I say revived, 
for the lines addressed to him, are put (I think properly) the last in the order 
of this series: the political complaints and forebodings contained in them, 
indicating that the revolution was very far advanced : Kurnus' administration 
being already at an end ; and every thing in the utmost confusion. These 
lines therefore, may be reckoned as among the very last which were written 



Tyrtaeus 



66 



THEOGNIS. 



at Megara, before his expatriation. His feelings upon Simonides' arrival, 
might be supposed to have been aggravated by the comparative change 
which had taken place in their circumstances, for at the time, to which we are 
now arrived; Theognis was ruined, and Simonides (whose attachment to the 
main chance was proverbial,) was probably by this time a rich man; for he 
appears to be giving an entertainment to which Theognis was invited. 

It is not unlikely that this visit of Simonides (to Athens probably in the 
first place, but as in former instances, extended to Megara) may be the 
same, which is mentioned as having left a singular mark of meanness upon 
his character ; when revisiting Athens, after the expulsion of Hippias, he en- 
gaged to compose a panegyrical poem, in honor of the assassins of his old 
friend and benefactor Hipparchus. Arriving at Megara, the same man would 
nndoubtedly pay his court to the faction then in power in that city ; but he 
could not omit sending an invitation to Theognis. And what sort of invita- 
tion would such a man, under such cirsumstances, have contrived to send ? 
something, it may be supposed to this effect. — " The company and conver- 
sation to be wholly literary" &c. &c. "persons of distinguished talents, all 
anxious for an opportunity" &c. &c. "a person so eminent for his genius and 
acquirements." Now the lines of Theognis are (as we shall see) an 
answer, distinctly replying to, and declining an invitation of this descrip- 
tion. "The sense of his own misfortunes and the distracted state of public 
affairs, had rendered him unfit for company and incapable of joining in any 
literary conversation," — It may remind us of Swift, after the fall of his 
friends, replying in bitterness, to the flummery literary letter of Pope, whom 
he suspected of being upon too good terms with the Whigs. 

The last line serves to shew, that among the "literati" whose company 
he had been expected to join, and to whom his poetical excuses would be 
communicated, he would have had a chance of meeting persons disagreeable 
to him (xaxot in political language) persons of the opposite party. 

What has been observed above, may serve to shew that the tone of ex- 
treme dejection and prostration of spirit, which is exibited in the following 
lines, might at the time have appeared genuine and unaffected; yet we shall 
see that there is good reason to suppose that it must have been either 
assumed altogether or intentionally exaggerated; we shall find that the Poet 



THEOGNIS. 



67 



must have been, at this very period, engaged in some enterprize of a very 
dangerous nature ; such a description of himself, therefore, if communicated 
to his opponents (as he calculated that it would be) would excite no suspi- 
cion ; and might serve perhaps to counteract any which already existed. 
The answer to Simonides's "very obliging invitation" is as follows. 

Lxm. 

Simonides ! If with my learning's store, 
I still retained my riches as before, 
I should not shrink from joining as a guest, 
In converse with the wisest and the best. 

But now, with idle shame opprest and weak, 
I sit dejected, and forbear to speak : 
Feeble, forgetful, melancholy, slow 
My former pride of learning, I forego. 
My former knowledge, I no longer know. 

Such is our state ! in a tempestuous sea, 
With all the crew raging in mutiny ! 
No duty follow'd, none to reef a sail, 
To work the vessel, or to pump or bale ; 
All is abandoned and without a check, 
The mighty sea comes sweeping o'er the deck 
Our Steersman,* hitherto so bold and steady, 
Active and able, is deposed already. 
No discipline, no sense of order felt ; 
The daily messes are unduly dealt. 
The goods are plundered, those that ought to keep 
Strict watch, are idly skulking or asleep ; 
All that is left of order or command, 
Committed wholly to the basest hand. 



] 



Euruus 



68 



THEOGNIS. 



In such a case, my friend ! I needs must think, 
It were no marvel, though the Vessel sink. 
This riddle, to my worthy friends I tell, 
But a shrewd knave will understand it well. 



This long simile of a ship, is not original in Theognis, it was to be found 
in an ode of Alcseus, an older poet; from whom, Horace has copied it. 
Theognis, probably made use of figurative language, in order to avoid giv- 
ing the xaxoi of the company an opportunity of quoting expressions, which 
if more intelligible and direct, would have been more likely to compromise 
him as a disaffected person. — We shall see the same apprehension expressed 
elsewhere Frag: LXIX. 

The last fragment has already anticipated the greater part of what can 
be learnt from the few remaining fragments relative to the revolution; the 
deposition of Kurnus; the low character of his successor; and the general 
confusion and disorder of the community. 

No lines can be found, of which it can be decidedly said, that they relate 
to Kurnus's appointment to the highest authority of the State. The follow- 
ing will probably be thought (as they appear) too feeble, and not sufficiently 
pointed, for such an occasion ; if addressed to Kurnus at all (for his name 
does not occur in the original) they may have related to some earlier and 
inferior object of ambition. 

LXIV. 

Schemes unadvisable and out of reason, 
Are best adjourn' d — wait for a proper season! 
Time and a fair conjuncture govern all. 
Hasty ambition hurries to a fall ; 
A fall predestined and ordain' d by heaven : 
By a judicial blindness madly driven, 
Mistaking and confounding good and evil, 
Men lose their senses, as they leave their level. 



THEOGNIS. 



69 



If the conjecture was right, which assigned the two fragments L, and LI. 
to the period of Kurnus' elevation, they would account sufficiently, for the 
non-appearance of any admonitory or political lines directly referring to it. 
If again, (as is probable,) a reconciliation took place after his deposition; 
the next lines may have been intended to obviate the influence of rash or 
treacherous advisers, upon a proud spirit recently mortified by the loss of 
power. 

LXV. 

Stir not a step ! risk nothing! but believe 

That vows and oaths are snares, meant to deceive ! 

Jove is no warrant for a promise given, 

Not Jove himself, nor all the Gods in heaven. 

Nothing is safe ; no character secure, 

No conduct, the most innocent and pure : 

All are corrupt, the Commons and the Great, 

Alike incapable to save the state. 

The ruin of the noblest and the best 

Serves for an idle ballad or a jest. 

Shame is abolished, and in high command, 

Rage, Impudence and Rapine rule the land. 



It should seem, that Kurnus was now disposed to follow the advice which 
his friend had before given him, respecting the choice of followers and ad- 
herents; see Frag: XXXII-III-1V. Theognis thinks such a party could not 
be formed of assured fidelity, and in sufficient force for the purposes which 
were in contemplation. 



70 



THEOGNIS. 



LXVL 

A trusty Partizan, faithful and bold 

Is worth his weight in silver or in gold, 

For times of trouble. — But the race is rare; 

Steady determined men, ready to share 

Good or ill fortune ! — Such, if such there are, 

Could you survey the World, and search it round, 

And bring together all that could be found ; 

The largest company, you could enrol; 

A single Vessel would embark the whole ! 

— So few there are ! the noble manly minds 

Faithful and firm, the men that honor binds ; 

Impregnable to danger and to pain, 

And low seduction in the shape of gain. 



The next fragment serves to mark more distinctly, that Kurnus was no 
longer in office ; it is an ironical exhortation to his successor, the Chief of 
the opposite party; who it should seem, was ruling away with a vengeance! 

LXVII. 

Lash your obedient rabble ! lash and load 
The burden on their backs! Spurn them and goad! 
They'll bear it all; by practice and by birth, 
The most submissive humble slaves on earth ! 



Another fragment seems to have been addressed to some person possessed 
at one time of influence, which he had misemployed; and whom the progress 
of the Revolution had reduced to insignificance ! 



THEOGNIS, 



71 



LXVIII. 



Friend ! if your sense and judgement had been wholly. 
Or nearly equal to your pride and folly ; 
You might have seen yourself approved and priz'd, 
As much precisely, as you're now despis'd. 



But the time was come, when it was no longer safe to speak so openly 
— the Time probably, of the visit of Simonides — see the concluding note 
subjoined to the verses addressed to him. Frag: LXIII. 

LX1X. 

Scarce can I venture plainly to declare 

Our present state, or what the dangers are. — 

— Let the worst happen! I shall bear, I trust, 

Whatever fate determines — bear we must! 

Inextricable difficulties rise, 

And death and danger are before our eyes. 



We now find Theognis no longer averse to the desperate measures suited 
to a desperate situation — but still, as before, distrustful of the firmness and 
fidelity of the majority of the persons upon whom his friend relied, 

LXX. 

From many a friend, you must withhold your plans ! 

No man is safe with many partizans, 

No secret! — With a party sure, but small, 

Of bold adherents, trusty men withal ; 

You may succeed : else ruin must ensue, 

Inevitable, for your friends and you. 



72 



THEOGNiS. 



This advice seems to have been followed: for we now come to a passage 
of singular interest. — The Speech of Theognis, at a secret meeting of Kur- 
nus's party friends. The exordium and the conclusion of this speech are 
found in separate fragments; but the character of each is clearly marked. 
The exordium addresses Kurnus in the presence of his assembled partizans, on 
the necessity of efficacious remedies for the maladies of the State. It is evi- 
dently, the prelude to a speech addressed to a Council of Conspirators; and 
the conclusion is marked by a conspirator's oath (a very curious and remark- 
able one) by which he binds himself to the assistance of his comrades, and 
to the execution of utter vengeance upon his enemies. Some other frag- 
ments which are found separate, and which are not likely to have been 
composed at any other time, by a man who had hitherto been averse to all 
violent and hazardous measures, are arranged in the only order which can 
be assigned to them. 

LXXI. 

Kurnus ! since here we meet friends and allies ; 
We must consult in common, to devise 
A speedy remedy with brief debate, 
To meet the new disorders of the State. 
More practise is required, and deeper skill 
To cure a patient, than to make him ill. 
The wise, in easy times will gladly rest ; 

When things are at the worst, a change is best. 

* *■ * * * * 

Kurnus ! in power and honor, heretofore, 
Your former fortunes, you discreetly bore. 
Fortune has altered ! bear it calmly still ! 
Endeavouring, with a firm and steady will, 
With other changes, our affairs to mend, 
With a bold effort, and with heaven to friend. 



THEOGNJS. 



73 



If Kurnus (our support,) has been displaced, 
Our main defence, dismantled and defaced; 
Must we, like cowards, of all hope forsaken, 
Lament and howl as if the town were taken? 
Though now reduced, no more a numerous host, 
Courage and Sense and Honor are our boast. 
Danger and Hope are over-ruling powers 
Of equal influence; and both are ours! 
Where counsel and deliberation fail 
Action and strenuous effort may prevail. 
* * * * * * 

My spirit, they shall never bend nor check, 
Though mountain heaps were loaded on my neck 
Let feeble coward souls crouch with affright, 
The brave are ever firm ; firm and upright. 
****** 

Then let the brazen fiery vault of heaven 

Crush me with instant ruin, rent and riven ! 

(The fear and horror of a former age) 

If, from the friends and comrades that engage 

In common enterprize, I shrink or spare 

Myself or any soul! If I forbear 

Full vengeance and requital on my foes ! 

All our antagonists! all that oppose! 



Whether this conspiracy succeded to the extent of obtaining a temporary 
superiority within the town, or whether it was baffled by their opponents; or 
abandoned in despair by the party who projected it, we have no means of 
forming any conjecture : In any one of these cases, the incident which ap- 
pears next in order might equally have taken place. 



74 



THEOGNIS. 



The March of an armed force from some neighbouring State (whose po- 
litics were opposed to those of the party of Kurnus and Theognis) is indicated 
by a fire signal, and determines them to abandon their country and escape 
without delay. 

LXXII. 

A speechless messenger, the Beacon's light 
Announces danger from the Mountain's height ! 
Bridle your horses, and prepare to fly! 
The final crisis of our fate is nigh ! 
A momentary pause, a narrow space 
Detains them; but the foes approach apace! 
— We must abide what fortune has decreed, 
And hope that heaven will help us at our need. 
Make your resolve! at home your means are great; 
Abroad, you will retain a poor estate. 
Unostentations, indigent and scant, 
Yet live secure, at least from utter want. 



In addition to the local and other relations between Corinth and Megara 
whoever examines the political character of Corinth at this time, and remarks 
the evident bias of that government in favor of the Democratic party at 
Athens, will feel no hesitation in concluding, that they must have been equal- 
ly disposed to protect a party of similar principles, in their own immediate 
neighbourhood; and that the armed force above mentioned, must have been 
dispatched from Corinth. This conclusion will be confirmed by the next 
fragment. Of the other two powerful neighbouring States, Thebes was of 
opposite politics, hostile in the extreme to the Athenian revolution ; and (as 
we shall see afterwards) became a place of refuge for the Megarian exiles : 
Athens, an Ionian State, would not at that period, have presumed to interpose 
in the internal disputes of a Doric city; and least of all, at that particular 



THE0GN1S. 



75 



crisis, when with the whole weight of the Doric confederacy opposed to her, 
under the ascendency of Sparta, and directed by the ability and inveteracy 
of Cleomenes, she was reduced to the then unheard of expedient, of soliciting 
assistance from the King of Persia; and her envoys arriving at Sardis, 
(though blamed for it afterwards when the danger was over; yet at the time, 
upon deliberate consultation) consented to perform the required homage, by 
presenting Earth and Water to the great King. Placed in such a precarious 
situation, it would have been an act of madness on the part of the Athenians, 
to have risked an offensive proceeding, which could have added nothing to 
their military security; which would have disgusted Corinth; and which at any 
rate would have prevented the success of those intrigues, by which the Co- 
rinthians (themselves nominally and formally members of the Confederacy) 
succeeded in disbanding the combined army, at a time when it was already 
advanced into the plain of Eleusis, and on the eve of a battle, likely to have 
been the most bloodily decided, of any that ever occurred in the internal 
wars of Greece. Availing themselves of the dissolution of the main army, 
the Athenians lost no time in advancing against the Thebans and Chalcideans; 
who in the meanwhile, had been making inroads upon the points bordering 
upon their own territory; encountering them severally in rapid succession, 
they overthrew the Thebans, and immediately (the historian says on the 
same day) passing over into Eubaea, attacked and defeated the Chalcideans^ 
seizing upon the territory, and expelling the proprietors. 

It should seem, that Theognis, in escaping from Megara, had taken up 
his residence in Eubaea, where the politics of the leading party, were congen- 
ial to his own. Upon this occasion then, he was a witness of the calamity 
which overwhelmed his friends and hospitable partizans. — The following 
lines are descriptive of what occurried. — Chalcis would have been very un- 
like any other City or State of Greece, if it had not contained a depressed 
party (in this instance, the Democratic party) eager to enjoy the exercise of 
power upon any conditions, and to consider the public distresses, as an op- 
portunity for party triumph. From what has been observed, it will be seen 
how justly the Poet's malediction in the concluding line, is bestowed upon 
the Corinthians. 



id 



76 



THEOGNIS. 



LXXIII. 

Alas, for our disgrace ! Cerinthus lost ! 
The fair Lelantian plain ! a plundering host 
Invade it — all the brave banish' d or fled! 
Within the town, lewd ruffians in their stead 
Rule it at random. — Such is our disgrace ! 
May Jove confound the Cypselizing race ! 



The term of the "Cypselizing race" could not possibly apply to any other 
people than the Corinthians; but it may be a question, upon what grounds, 
and with what particular intention, the term is applied to them in this in- 
stance ? Cypselus was entirely out of date; his son Periander, who succeeded 
him as Tyrant of Corinth, had died after a long reign, in the last year of 
the 48th. Olympiad (see Fasti Hellenici) having in his old age, and as 
one of his last acts of Sovereignty, sent three hundred boys of the best 
families in Corcyra, as a present to Alyattes, the father of Craesus, to be 
manufactured into Eunuchs. Why then, should Cypselus be mentioned? 
the 'memory of his tyranny being in point of time obsolete ; and in point 
of atrocity, effaced by that of his son; after whose death, a free government 
had been established ; which had continued, as it appears without interrup- 
tion from that time. But Cypselus was the first underminer and destroyer of 
the Dorian Aristocracy; having supplanted the Oligarchy of the Bacchiadae, 
he had continued banishing and destroying without intermission during the 
whole of his life; and his son (after the usual interval of milder government 
in a new reign) had resumed his father's policy, and pushed it indiscrimina- 
tely to a more severe extreme. 

But the system had originated with Cypselus; He began as a democratic 
leader, attacking and overturning an exclusive oligarchy, and afterwards in- 
dividually destroying and extinguishing them. This, we may suppose, he 
had pretty well accomplished during the course of his reign ; and that the 
momentary pause of tyranny, at the succession of his son, must have been 



THEOGNIS. 



77 



connected with the consideration; that the old opponents of the father's par- 
ty, had been annihilated; and a consequent notion in his mind, that it might 
not be impossible for him, to maintain himself in the sovereignty, with a mild 
administration, as the chief of the triumphant party; like a kind of Lorenzo 
de Medici. 

This scheme of policy, entertained at the outset by Periander, and finally 
abandoned for one directly opposite, seems to be the point which lies at the 
bottom of the story, of the advice required from his more ancient and expe- 
rienced fellow- tyrant Thrasybulus ; and of the enigmatic speechless answ r er, 
which he received; in consenquence of which, he determined to destroy every 
thing which had grown above the common level — the adherents of his father 
or their representatives, the opponents of the former exlusive caste and un- 
connected with it; but who could boast of illustrious descent in another line; 
derived perhaps, like his own, from the race of the Lapithae; every thing in 
short, which by birth, abilities, wealth or distinction of any kind, w r as capable 
of giving umbrage. — But the effect of such a tyranny when exercised for 
such a length of time, would be manifest in a continuance of the same policy, 
surviving the overthrow of the government in which it had originated ; for 
the chief persons of Corinth, at the time when it was released from this long 
course of oppression, must have belonged to families, who from their very 
obscurity and insignificance, had escaped destruction. Such persons there- 
fore, and their successors administering the affairs of the State, would not 
in their external relations, be disposed to favor an Aristocracy of Caste; 
indeed their own traditions were very unfavorable to it — the memory of the 
government of the Doric Aristocracy of the Bacchiadae, having remained 
little less odious than that of Periander himself. 

The policy therefore of Corinth, at this time baffling the designs of Sparta, 
which were directed to the maintenance of the established Aristocracies, 
might not be improperly called the policy of Cypselus; the drift of his ty- 
ranny, having been carried on as the champion of the subject classes, in op- 
position to the Doric Aristocracy ; while that of Periander, w T as indiscriminate 
and unsparing, wholly selfish and unsupported by any pretence of party 
motive. Cypselus, at least as compared with his son, might be considered as 
a "Glorious deliverer;" and a good steady partizan might have contended, 



78 



THEOGNIS. 



that his measures were justifiable upon principle; allowing at the same time, 
that "they had been carried a little too far" like those of the "Glorious Hen- 
ry VIII." whose memory, it is to be observed, remained popular for a length 
of time after his death. As to his usurpation ; that is a point, which no true 
partizan is ever found fastidious enough to impute as a delinquency to the 
leader of his own party. — Socicles the Corinthian indeed, in a speech deli- 
vered at Sparta, in presence of a general convention of the Doric States, 
describes Cypselus as a bloody tyrant, though greatly surpassed in tyranny 
by his son ; but it must be remembered, that Socicles is arguing generally 
against arbitrary power in the hands of a single individual ; in opposition to 
the proposal brought forward by the Spartans ; who, on discovering that in 
deposing Hippias, they had been the dupes of a suborned oracle, were deter- 
mined to retrace their steps, and to reinstate him in the sovereignty, from 
which they had ejected him. Pleading therefore, in opposition to this pro- 
ject; it was the object of the Corinthian envoy, to place the memory of Cyp- 
selus in the most odious light; wholly without modification, and omitting all 
mention of any favorable recollection, which in the minds of the Corinthians 
themselves, might be attached to it. It might be very true, that in the esti- 
mation of his own countrymen, Cypselus might have the merit of having 
destroyed an Aristocracy of caste, similar in its origin and principles, to that 
which the Spartans exercised over the subject cities of Laconia; but such a 
statement would have been highly offensive, and in no way conducive to the 
success of his argument. — The Bacchiadae, whom Cypselus had destroyed, 
had in fact been regarded by the Spartans, as a Kindred clan; — But, if consi- 
dering the occasion which called for it, and the presence in which it was deli- 
vered, it is impossible to draw from the speech of Socicles, any clear conclus- 
ion with regard to the real feelings of the Corinthians towards the memory 
of their great Revolutionist ; there are on the other hand, circumstances ap- 
parently trivial, but which serve to indicate that a favorable feeling must 
have predominated. — That the Oracle delivered to him, predicting the future 
fortunes of his family, and those by which his birth had been in two instances 
announced, as the predestined destroyer of the Bacchiadae, and the "founder 
of equal law" should have been repeated and recorded; and that the very 
Chest in which when a child, he was said to have been concealed from the 



THEOGNIS. 



79 



pursuit of the Bacchiadae, should have been kept as a relic and memorial, till 
it became ultimately interesting as an object of antiquity; are circumstances 
sufficiently indicative of a long surviving partiality for his memory. But 
surely, this argument must seem superfluous, to any man who merely reads 
the newspapers; the degrading articles from Paris,* which daily meet our 
eyes, may serve as a sufficient proof, that the most prodigal waste of human 
life, a most utter disregard of the sufferings of mankind ; finally, a spirit and 
conduct, exhibiting the most perfect type of the tyrannic character, are in 
no respect disqualifications for posthumous popularity. 

Cypselus was a tyrant and an usurper, but the system of which he was 
the personification, was persevered in, after his death. The principle upon 
which his usurpation had been founded (a hatred of the hereditary oligar- 
chies) still continued to influence the policy of Corinth, and manifested itself 
in their support of the democratic revolution of Athens and Megara. This 
was the point which Theognis (doubly a sufferer from the effects of this po- 
licy) meant to mark ; and if this view of the subject is admissible, his inten- 
tion in characterizing the Corinthians as a Cypselizing race, may be capable 
of explanation. It is to be feared, that no authority is likely to be found, for 
any shorter and more decided mode of interpreting the passage. 



After so long a digression, it is fortunate, that we have to change the scene 
and the subject. Expelled from Eubeea, Theognis seems to have retired to 
Thebes, a state whose politics were congenial to his own; fellow sufferers also, 
like his friends in Eubsea, from the unexpected vigour of the Athenians, who up 
to that time, when they became animated (as Herodotus observes) by the new 
excitement of liberty; had never been accounted very formidable antagonists; 
while the Thebans, considering themselves, as they were, a superior race of 
men, distinguished by a peculiar system of tactics, and singular personal 
prowess in the field, upon which the success of their tactical system depend- 
ed, were wholly unable to digest the disgrace of a defeat. It should seem, 
both from local situation, and the temper and spirit of the people, that The- 
bes must have been the scene of those projects and hopes which Theognis 



* The details 
of the Tran- 
slation of the 
Corpo Santo 
of Bonaparte 



80 



THEOGNIS. 



and his friends, at one time entertained, of recovering possession of their na- 
tive city, either by force or stratagem ; and executing a severe vengeance 
upon their opponents. 

But, we must first exhibit him in a familiar scene, a stranger among 
strangers ; affording an instance of the unpleasant results arising from that 
social defect, which Shakespear characterizes, as 

"Some humour, which too much o'erleavens 
"The form of plausive manners." 

The story for the present, must be taken upon trust ; the proofs and 
vouchers, being postponed; as they would be too tedious at the outset. The 
Thebans, we may suppose, did not depart from their usual character of ho- 
spitality, in the instance of the Megarian exiles ; and it so happened, that in 
the house of a Theban nobleman, a favorite facetious female slave, Arguris 
by name, was admitted to enliven the party. The music of the pipes was 
introduced after dinner ; this was a temptation, which Theognis could not 
resist, and which overset all the ffefJivoT*]? (grave good breeding) befitting his 
condition as an exiled noble. He offered to accompany the music, and per- 
formed so well, as to excite general admiration and applause ; and probably 
at the same time, to lower himself to a certain degree, in the estimation of 
the company ; which Arguris perceiving (like a sarcastic little wretch as she 
was) joined in the general expression of admiration "It was very extraor- 
dinary — very extraordinary indeed — the gentleman must have had a great 
"deal of practice — he must have practised very young — perhaps his mother 
"might have been a flute player" to which we may suppose the poet to have 
answered "No ! that his acquirements were not so limited ; that like all 
other persons of tolerable education in Megara, he had also learned to accom- 
pany himself upon the lyre" thereupon, the lyre being handed to him, he 
sung to it some extempore verses ; acknowledging that passion for accom- 
panying the music of the pipe, which had subjected him to so severe an 
insinuation; replying to it at the same time, by an assertion of the nobility 
of his birth, and a severe retaliation upon the condition and origin of the 



THEOGNIS. 



81 



person who had offended him. These lines, originally produced extempore, 
formed a short poem, of which the lines already given in illustration of his 
early pursuits (and which are here repeated, in what appears to be their 
proper place) would have been the conclusion, at least, as far as regarded 
the affront received, and the person who had offered it. 

LXXIV. 

My heart exults, the lively call obeying, 
When the shrill merry pipes are sweetly playing; 
With these, to chaunt aloud or to recite, 
To carol and carouse, is my delight : 
Or in a steadfast tone, bolder and higher, 
To temper with a touch, the manly lyre. 
# * * * # 

The slavish visage never is erect ; 

But looks oblique, and language indirect 

Betray their origin — no lovely rose 

Or hyacinth, from the rude bramble grows ; 

Nor from a slavish and degraded breed, 

Can gentle words, or courteous acts proceed. 

From noble iEthon, my descent I trace, 
Thebes grants me refuge and a resting place ; 
Forbear then Arguris, with empty mirth, 
Yourself a slave, to scandalize my birth : 
Woman ! I tell thee, wandering and forlorn, 
In exile and distress, much have I borne, 
Sorrows and wrongs and evils manifold ; 
But, to be purchased as a slave and sold, 
Has never been my fate, nor never will: 
And I retain a town and country still, 



82 



THEOGNIS. 



Along the banks of the Lethaean river, 
In a fair land, where I shall live for ever, 
For a firm friend a steady partizan, 
A faithful and an honorable man, 
Disdaining every sordid act, and mean, 
No slave am I, nor slavish have I been. 



We must now proceed to justify the probability of the incident which has 
been above related. It is evident from the original, that the Poet is provoked 
to assert the nobility of his birth, in reply to some disparaging insinuation. 
— But how does he characterize this insinuation? Not according to the 
usual forms of the language, which in such case, would have described it 
as injurious to his family or his forefathers ysvo<; xat Tcaxspa? instead of either 
of these, the phrase which he actually makes use of, is Toxyjas (my parents) 
a term quite unusual in discussing any question of descent. It seems 
difficult to account for this particular phrase ; but one solution presents 
itself: namely, that as (without naming her) it evidently includes the poet's 
Mother, it might have been meant to refer to some sarcasm particularly 
directed against her; but here again, what could there have been in the 
manner and behaviour of Theognis, a well educated man, a stranger 
and a guest at the table of her master, which could suggest even to the 
most impertinent upper servant, the idea of any insinuation against the gen- 
tleman's Mother ? Theognis' proficiency in accompanying the music of the 
pipe, and his passion for exhibiting it, (of which we have already seen an in- 
stance,) would furnish an answer to this difficulty. The pipe was commonly 
played by a Female Musician ; and the occupation was by no means a re- 
putable one. 

Another circumstance may be mentioned as giving strengh to this con- 
jecture; the existing text of Theognis is so strange a jumble, so evidently 
compiled without sense or order, that no stress can be laid upon the juxta 
position of passages, as inferring any connection between them (at least in 
the intention of the transcriber) but the consideration, that he might have 



THEOGNIS. 



83 



been led mechanically, to make various extracts at the same time, from the 
same portion of the original, which lay open before him ; is not entirely to 
be overlooked. We have already seen an example of this, in the fragment 
which alludes to the fate of Hipparchus, and the others descriptive of his 
character, which are found in juxta position with lines evidently relating to 
his funeral In like manner, it will be found, that three of these fragments 
given above, stand in juxta position in the present text; and that the fourth 
is connected by its sense with two of the others, as they all three relate to 
some altercation with a slave ; an incident which though it might have oc- 
curred to him again, was not likely to be made on any other occasion a 
theme for poetry. 

At no great distance from two of the preceding, a fragment is found se- 
parated into two, in Brunck's edition; but which, though two or more inter- 
mediate lines may possibly be wanting, appear connected by the particle 81 
and by the infinitive form of the verb, which runs through both. These 
lines belong clearly to the same period as the preceding, when he was hospi- 
tably entertained at Thebes, and while he still cherished hopes of a trium- 
phant return to Megara. Now, if we figure to ourselves the preceding scene, 
and do not suppose Theognis to be utterly destitute of civility and common 
sense, we may fairly take it for granted, that the extempore effusion, in which 
he retaliated the offence given by the slave, would not have terminated 
without some marked expression of respect and deference to the master of 
the house ; who was wholly guiltless of the offence which had been given 
him. In the translation which follows, the fragment last mentioned is under- 
stood and interpreted in this sense. 

LXXV. 

To seize my lost possessions and bestow 
Among my friends, the spoils of many a foe, 
Such is my trust and hope ; meanwhile I rest 
Content and cheerful an admitted guest, 



u 



84 



THEOGNIS. 



Conversing with a wise and worthy mind 
Profound in learning, and in taste refin'd. 
Watching his words and thoughts, to bear away 
Improvement and instruction, day by day. 



If we consider the world xp £ wv in its relation to jocpi'yjv uasav we see, that 
the apparent maxim, is only one of those forms of speech, arising out of, and 
implying an instance actually present. "You ought always to take a glass 
"of good Burton ale with your cheese" is a maxim which whatever may be its 
value, is never heard except in cases where Ale of that description is actually 
at hand. Thus when Theognis says "One ought to be invited to a Feast, and 
" to sit in company with an excellent person possessed of universal knowledge " 
he is to be understood as saying, "I think it a good thing to be as I am at 
"present, invited and sitting at table in company with an excellent person of 
"universal knowledge." 

The hopes and projects of an exile, briefly alluded to in the preceding 
fragment, are more distinctly marked, in a passage alluding to the story of 
Ulysses ; he anticipates like him, a safe return from Hell (in his own case, the 
Hell of Banishment) and a similar triumphant reestablishment in his native 
country; with an equally full revenge upon his antagonists, and a joyful 
meeting with his Penelope, and his Telemachus, his wife and son ; whom, 
it should seem, that he had left behind. The same allusion to his state 
of Banishment as a kind of Hell, will be found in another passage, (com- 
posed long after, under the influence of very different views and expecta- 
tions) where the example which he takes as a parallel to his own, is that of 
Sisyphus. 



THEOGNIS. 



85 



LXXVI. 

Talk not of evils past! Ulysses bore 
Severer hardships than my own, and more ; 
Doom'd to descend to Pluto's dreary reign, 
Yet, He returned; and view'd his home again; 
And wreaked his vengeance on the plundering crew, 
The factious haughty suitors, whom he slew : 
Whilst all the while, with steady faith unfeigned 
The prudent, chaste Penelope remain' d, 
With her fair son; waiting a future hour, 
For his arrival and return to power. 



The above allusion to the good conduct of his wife, is confirmed by lines 
addressed to Kurnus ; who it should seem, was equally fortunate. 

LXXVII. 

Kurnus, of all good things in human life, 
Nothing can equal goodness in a wife. 
In our own case, we prove the proverb true ; 
You vouch for me, my friend ! and I for you. 



A mixture of hope and despondency accompanied by a vehement passion 
for revenge are marked in the following lines; singular as they may appear, 
they are to the best of the translator's ability, a faithful representation of the 
style, tone and phraseognomy which mark the original: such in short, as the 
author would have written in English, if we could suppose the English lan- 
guage to have been employed in directing such strange addresses to the su- 
preme Being. It must be observed however, that in the concluding lines, a 
proverb contracted from a simile, is expanded into the simile from which it 
originated, no equivalent proverb being to be found in the English language. 



86 



THEOGNJS. 



The word x a P a ^pa in the original, may perhaps have been intended to 
convey a local meaning: it signified a gully, the bed of a wintry torrent — 
a ravine of this kind called the Charadra, was one of the boundaries of the 
Megarian territory. Theognis therefore, may have meant to allude to the 
direction in which he had passed the frontier. 

LXXVIII. 

May Jove assist me to discharge the debt 
Of kindness to my friends — and grant me yet 
A further boon — revenge upon my foes ! 
With these accomplished — I could gladly close 
My term of life — a fair requital made ; 
My friends rewarded, and my wrongs repaid 
Gratitude and revenge, before I die, 
Might make me deem'd almost a Deity ! ! 

Yet hear, mighty Jove, and grant my prayer, 
Relieve me from affliction and despair ! 
take my life, or grant me some redress, 
Some foretaste of returning happiness! 
Such is my state — I cannot yet descry ^ 
A chance of vengeance on mine enemy > 
The rude despoilers of my property. 3 
Whilst I, like to a scar'd and hunted hound, 
That scarce escaping, trembling and half drown'd, 
Crosses a gulley swelled with wintry rain, 
Have crept ashore, in feebleness and pain. 

Yet my full wishes — to drink their very blood — 
Some power divine, that watches for my good, 
May yet accomplish — Soon may he fulfill 
My righteous hope — my just and hearty will. 



THEOGNIS. 



87 



The pleasures of hope (the proverbial consolation of a banished man) are 
the subject of the next fragment. 

LXXIX. 

For human nature, Hope remains alone 
Of all the Deities — the rest are flown. 
Faith is departed ; Truth and Honor dead ; 
And all the Graces too, my friends, are fled. 
The scanty specimens of living worth, 
Dwindled to nothing, and extinct on earth. 
Yet, whilst I live and view the light of heaven, 
(Since Hope remains, and never has been driven 
From the distracted world) the single scope 
Of my devotion, is to worship Hope : 
When Hecatombs are slain, and Altars burn, 
With all the Deities adorM in turn ; 
Let Hope be present; and with Hope, my friend! 
Let every sacrifice commence and end. 

Yes! Insolence, Injustice, every crime, 
Rapine and wrong may prosper for a time ; 
Yet shall they travel on to swift decay, 
That tread the crooked path and hollow way. 



The fourth line is characteristic; the victim of a popular revolution lament- 
ing that Democracy had destroyed the Graces: like the Commandeur in that 
admirable Proverbe of Monsr. Le Clercq's — Les Soupers. 

With an expatriated party, the disappointment of their hopes, is usually 
fatal to that spirit of cordiality, which had originated in a feeling of common 
interest. It is then, that each individual, as the object of their union appears 
unattainable, begins to confine his views to his own personal interests; and a 
tone of selfishness and querulous recrimination succeeds to that spirit of good 



88 



THEOGNIS. 



* see Frag. 
VI, XXXIV. 



humor and good fellowship; which as long as they are not wholly destitute 
of hope, is frequently characteristic of a defeated party. 

It should seem that the hopes entertained by the Poet and the emi- 
grant party to which he belonged, were never realized; and that (as was na- 
turally to be expected) a spirit of impatience and discontent must have begun 
to be prevalent amongst them. The following lines seem to belong to this 
period, and to be descriptive of the altered temper of his associates in misfortune. 

LXXX. 

I search among my friends — none can I find, 
No sterling unadulterated mind ; 
None that abides the crucible like mine ; 
Rising above the standard — superfine! 



In these lines the sense which is assigned to the word urcepTspfy (above 
the standard) is assumed from the context: the lexicons do not give it; nor 
is it to be expected, that lexicographers should find in ancient authors, the 
technical terms of the assay office; but we have seen already, that it was an 
object familiar to the mind of the poet.* 

Theognis, it should seem, must have been among the poorest of the party; 
having escaped from Megara tuocvt' ttizo<7zi<3tt[kzvo$ "stript of every thing" a 
circumstance necessarily omitted in the translation of Frag. LXXVIII as it 
would have appeared somewhat absurd, if combined with the simile of the 
Dog. The following lines seem to have been occasioned by the illiberality 
of some of his companions who were less destitute than himself. 

LXXXI. 

An Exile has no friends ! no partizan 
Is firm or faithful to the banished man ; 
A disappointment and a punishment, 
Harder to bear, and worse than banishment ! 



THE0GN1S. 



89 



The reader is here requested to tarn back to the fragment marked LVII 
beginning "Blessed Almighty Jove" (which from the singularity of its tone 
had been placed in juxta position with others of a like character) He will pro- 
bably be of opinion, that in chronological order, it ought to stand here, as it 
marks a time, when the notion of abandoning his party, and endeavouring to 
conciliate the victorious faction (though not admitted or approved) has dis- 
tinctly presented itself to his mind. 

The next fragment marks his resolution upon this subject, as already taken. 
In consequence of the neglect of his associates, he declares his intention of 
negotiating for himself, and endeavouring to conciliate the faction by which 
he had been expelled. 

LXXXII. 



The last and worst of ills, save death alone ! 
The worst of human miseries is my own ! 
— Those friends of mine have cast me off — and 
Must seek perforce, a last resource, to try 
To treat and tamper with the enemy. 



The english reader is desired to interpret the words " cast me off" as an 
expression, indirectly implying a refusal of pecuniary assistance — the word 
in the original (7rpouSu>xav)is used in this sense in another passage of the poet 
(not here translated) in which, a poor courtezan is describing her own condi- 
tion v. 841. 

The same tone of complete despondency, the same complaint of abandon- 
ment on the part of his friends, and the consequent necessity of endeavouring 
to conciliate his enemies, are apparent in the following fragment. 

LXXXIII. 

Happy the man, with wordly wealth and ease, 
Who dying in good time, departs in peace. 



yo 



THEOGNIS. 



Not yet reduced to wander as a stranger, 
In exile and distress^ and daily danger ; 
To fawn upon his foes, to risk the trial 
Of a friend's faith, and suffer a denial ! 



A short fragment is to be found, of little merit in itself; but which (as it 
evidently marks a particular turn in the views and feelings of the poet) can 
not according to the strict rules of criticism, be overlooked, in any attempt to 
ascertain and arrange the incidents of his life. The original of this singular 
and perplexing passage, if expanded into the dimension which is necessary 
to render its intention and meaning discernible to an english reader, might 
stand thus. 

LXXXIV. 

No mean or coward heart, will I commend, 
In an old comrade or a party friend : 
Nor with ungenerous hasty zeal decry 
A noble minded gallant enemy. 



The original couplet (for it is a couplet in the original) appears like others 
of the detached couplets, which are found in our present copies, to have been 
the exordium of a separate poem; a poem of which, as of many others, only 
the initial lines have been preserved. In this poem then, (as is apparent from 
the supposed introductory lines) the poet's intention must have been to pass 
in review, the characters of his own partizans, and also those of his adversaries, 
with professed impartiality; but with a candid bias in favor of his opponents. 

With respect then to a poem of this description, or to any other poem, of 
which the lines in question could consistently have formed a part; a difficulty 
would arise, as to the period of the poet's life (if such a period could be found) 
to which it might with any probability be assigned. We have already seen, 
that his fear and hatred of the opposite party, had been progressively be- 
coming more and more intense, up to the very moment of his expatriation; 



THEOGNIS, 



91 



it is impossible therefore, to assign this fragment (or any poem to which 
it could have belonged) to the period preceding that event. Again, the tone 
of it, from which it is evident that the poet still considered himself as a 
personage whose estimate of individuals might be deemed a matter of im- 
portance, is totally at variance with the character, which many years after, 
when he succeeded in obtaining permission to return to Megara, he found 
himself obliged to assume. An utter and entire adjuration of all party feel- 
ings and reminiscences seems to have been the implied condition of his recal, 
a condition to which he adhered with an excess of caution. 

The reader, if he arrives in safety to the concluding pages of this essay 
will see, that the tone of this fragment, implying a critical estimate of the 
characters of the Poet's friends and opponents, would have been wholly un- 
suited to the situation in which he was placed at this latter period. 

The length of this discussion may seem perhaps disproportionate to the 
very moderate merit of the passage to which it relates. — If -it had been the 
intention of the writer, to compose a mere romance, illustrative of early Gre- 
cian manners, and diversified with occasional scraps of something in the shape 
of poetry; making use of the text of the author, merely as a canvas, for the 
exercise of invention: In such a case undoubtedly, it might have been advis- 
able to have avoided all notice of any passage, apparently inconsistent with 
the assumed narrative; but of which the incongruity would not be manifest, 
except to the accurate and diligent enquirer; Who noticing the passage in the 
first instance, might follow it out, into the primary inferences, which it legiti- 
mately suggests; and in so doing might be conducted to a conclusion, irrecon- 
cileable with the series of deductions founded upon the coherent and concurrent 
testimony of other fragments. — But, it has been the wish and endeavour of 
the writer, to trace a series of real events, more rationally interesting, in his 
judgement, than any work of fiction which he could have ventured to attempt. 
He is therefore anxious to remove those impediments which had obstructed 
his own investigation; and which might equally impede the researches of any 
other person whose attention might happen to be directed to the same author. 
This passage had long appeared a decided stumbling block; and it is some 
satisfaction to have been able to convert it into a stepping stone. It had in 
fact been taken for granted, naturally enough, that the poem to which this 



12 



92 



THEOGNIS. 



passage belonged, must have been composed at Megara. Upon this suppo- 
sition, it had appeared utterly unaccountable, and wholly at variance with the 
inferences deducible from other fragments: But it sometimes happens, that a 
very simple reflection may serve for the solution of what had been long con- 
sidered as a serious difficulty. It is clear from Frs. LXXXIII and LXXXIV 
that Theognis must have been in negotiation, or at least attempting to nego- 
tiate with the party in possession of the City; the party by whom he had been 
expelled. With a view then to conciliate his adversaries, and to prepare the 
way for his own recal, what method would be most likely to be employed, by 
a man who was in the habit of employing poetry upon all occasions; who 
replies in verse, to the impertinence of a female slave; and whom we have 
seen composing in metre, the speech which he delivered at a party meeting, 
assembled at a critical time, and deliberating upon the adoption of the most 
dangerous measures? There should seem to be little difficulty in supposing 
that the habitual and natural language of the poet, must have been employed 
upon this occasion ; that Verse would have been the vehicle of his first over- 
tures ; and that a poem of affected candour, in which, as he says himself, his 
friends (the bad ones at least) were not to be praised; and his enemies (the 
good ones at least) were not to be blamed, must have been the first overture 
to the treaty which he was endeavouring to open with the victorious party. 
The failure of this negotiation will in the meanwhile serve to account for 
the tone of utter dejection and despondency which is marked in the next 
fragment. 

LXXXV. 

Not to be born — never to see the sun! 
No wordly blessing is a greater one ! 
And the next best, is speedily to die ; 
And lapt beneath a load of earth to lie ! 



THEOGNIS. 



93 



"We are now approaching to a very different period of the poet's existence; 
his long residence in Sicily. That Island and the country of Magna Graecia, 
as it was called (the maritime portion of the continental territory of Naples) 
stood at that time in the same relation to the older states of Greece, as the 
coasts of Asia- Minor had done at an early period : nearly the same as that of 
the States of America with respect to the present European world. The 
western colonies of the little world of Greece, were the common refuge of 
unemployed talent. Abounding in wealth, to a degree that was become pro- 
verbial; and profuse in their encouragement of all the arts by which their 
customary forms of life could be polished or adorned; they afforded an asy- 
lum and the means of employment and maintenance to talents and ingenuity 
of every kind. 

Among the many persons who sought refuge in this new world, there 
could have been hardly any one who was determined to such a measure, by 
circumstances of more complete destitution than those in which Theognis 
must have found himself. Forced into exile, as he described himself " Stript 
of every thing" disappointed in his hopes of a victorious return and trium- 
phant retaliation upon his enemies; disgusted with his associates, and neg- 
lected by them, and failing of success in the conciliatory overture from which 
he had hoped to obtain a remission of his exile, his situation was one, which, 
if it did not terminate in irretrievable despair, must have suggested some 
decided and extraordinary resolution. This resolution is announced in the 
following lines ; the last, as it should seem, in which the name of Kurnus 
occurs. In the original, there is a point of character and feeling, which is 
imperfectly represented in the translation. — In taking leave of his friend, he 
repeats his name several times. 

LXXXVI. 

For noble minds, the worst of miseries, 
Worse than old age or wearisome disease 
Is Poverty — from Poverty to flee ; 
From some tall Precipice prone to the Sea, 



94 



THEOGNIS. 



It were a fair escape to leap below! 
In Poverty, dear Kurnus ! we forego 
Freedom in word and deed — body and mind, 
Action and thought, are fettered and confined. 
Let me then fly — dear Kurnus, once again! 
Wide as the limits of the land and main, 
From these entanglements ; with these in view, 
Death is the lighter evil of the two. 



We now come to the period of his long residence in Sicily, where the 
following lines were composed, under the pressure of distress and difficulty ; 
probably soon after his arrival, and while the impressions of a sea voyage 
were uppermost in his mind. 

LXXXVII. 

Wearied and sick at heart, in seas of trouble, 
I work against the wind, and strive to double 
The dark disastrous Cape of poverty. 



The following lines seem to have been composed about the same time, 
and under the same circumstances; it is curious, that the habit of generaliza- 
tion should follow him, even when reflecting upon his own situation; His mind 
expands itself naturally into a comprehensive observation. 

LXXXVIII. 

All kinds of shabby shifts are understood, 
All kinds of arts are practised, bad and good 
All kinds of ways to gain a livelihood. 



THE0GN1S. 



95 



His personal talents and acquirements seem at this time to have been his 
sole resource ; and amongst them, the most obvious, and the most marketable 
was the proficiency which he had attained to, as a vocal performer, accom- 
panying the music of the pipe. 

In this character, we find him assisting at a musical festival, and apologizing 
for his voice, which is likely, he says, to be affected by " having accompanied 
a party of revellers and serenaders, the night before; moreover the other per- 
former, who ought to have borne a part with him, has failed in his engagement. 
But he has no objection to the piper whom they have provided and will pro- 
ceed with his engagement." * 

LXXXIX. 

I can not warble like a nightingale f 
This voice of mine, I fear, is like to fail, 
With rambling on a revel late at night. J 

I shall not make a poor excuse, to slight 
Your Piper's art and practice; but the friend 
That ought to bear his part here, and attend, 
In fact is absent — I must do my best; 
And put my talent fairly to the test. 
So — praying to the Gods, for help and grace, 
Close to the piper's side, I take my place. 



In the original, there is an ambiguity which could not be represented in 
english (Se^d?) in one sense implies his skill as a musician; in the other, it 
describes his position at the side of the piper. 

Exhibition such as this, must have been felt as mortifying, by a man of 
birth, and who had been originally a person of rank and consequence in his 
native city; accordingly, we find feelings such as might be expected from him, 
expressed in the following fragment, written probably about the same time. 



sic in ong. 



f uitf7rep ayjSwv 



| where he 
had been 
hired to 
attend. 



96 



THEOGNIS. 



XC. 



Poverty ! how sorely do you press, 
Debasing soul and body with distress : 
To such degrading offices you bind 
A manly form, an elevated mind, 
Once elegantly fashioned and refin'd. 



It is but too natural to suppose, that the attempts of a poor gentleman, 
to obtain a living by the exercise of talents, which had formerly served for his 
amusement, would be exposed to the censure of professional performers; one 
of them, it should seem, (Academus by name) had spoken of him as not being 
a thorough bred musician, but a kind of mule between an artist and amateur. 
To this taunt, he replies in the first of the two following fragments : the se- 
cond, though separated in the present text, seems to belong to it, as an easy 
conciliatory conclusion to the previous reprimand, 

XCI. 

I wish that a fair trial were prepared, \ 

Friend Academus ! with the prize declared, \ 

A comely slave, the conqueror's reward. 3 

For a full proof, betwixt myself and you, 

Which is the better Minstrel of the two. 

Then would I shew, you, that a Mule surpasses 

In his performance, all the breed of Asses. 
****** 

Enough of such discourse ; Now let us try 
To join our best endeavours, you and I, 
With voice and music; since the Muse has bless'd 
Us both with her endowments ; and possessed 
With the fair science of harmonious sound 
The neighbouring people, and the Cities round. 



THEOGNIS. 



97 



The last lines mark his position as a foreign artist, he is complimenting 
the natives. 

We now find, that he was beginning to get together a little money; and 
the next fragment will shew, that he was become very careful of it. 



XCII. 



You boast of wealth, and scornfully deplore 
My poverty — something I have in store; 
And with God's blessing, I shall make it more 



i 



Being now under the necessity of vindicating himself from a charge of 
meanness and parsimony ; his defence is made, in the same spirit of genera- 
lization, which has been already noticed as a peculiar feature of his mind. 

xcin. 

Though gifted with a shrewd and subtle ken, 
Timagoras ! — the secret hearts of men, 
(You' 11 find it) are a point hard to be guess'd ; 
For poor and shabby souls in riches dress'd; 
Make a fair show ; — while indigence and care 
Give to the noble mind, a meaner air. 



Theognis might have been enabled to maintain himself at first, and pos- 
sibly to make a little money, in the way above described; and perhaps by 
teaching music and poetry; but his most important occupation (like that of 
his instructor Simonides) and that from which the chief source of his gains 
would have arisen, was the direction of the Choral entertainments, which were 
exhibited in competition by the different tribes, at the expence of the weal- 
thiest citizens of each. The person charged with this burdensome office was 
called the Choregus; a word signifying properly, the Leader of the Chorus ; 
though afterwards, owing to this circumstance, it was employed, to signify 



98 



THEOGNIS. 



the person, who was chargeable with the expenses of any undertaking, or who 
voluntarily engaged to defray them. The Choregus then, not being, it may 
be supposed, usually capable of directing an entertainment consisting of mu- 
sic, poetry and dancing, was under the necessity of employing another person, 
under the designation of Chorodidascalus, or teacher of the chorus; a profes- 
sed artist, a poet, musician and ballet-master; characters, which were anciently 
united in the same person. The Chorodidascalus, charged to prepare and 
direct the details of the entertainment, did not lead an easy life; he had to 
compose the poetry and the music; to discipline and superintend the evolu- 
tions of the Chorus of dancers ; It was necessary that he should be perfect in 
the system of choral tactics, capable of inventing new manoeuvres, and of 
directing their execution; he had moreover to manage the vocal and instru- 
mental performers, and to negotiate with the Machinist and the makers of 
dresses, masks &c. but a most mortifying circumstance would arise, when 
the Choregus, from the mere paltry consideration of additional expense, had 
the bad taste to refuse his consent to some manifest improvement in the ex- 
hibition. Theognis, on one occasion, seems to have met with a Choregus, 
who was insensible to the advantages of some proposed improvement; and 
he is led to the conclusion expressed in the following verses; that the rarity 
of the union of wealth and good taste in the same individual, is highly unfavor- 
able to the progress of the fine arts ! ! 

XCIV. 

Dunces are often rich, while indigence 
Thwarts the designs of elegance and sense. 
Nor wealth alone, nor judgement can avail ; 
In either case, art and improvement fail. 



Finding himself become an active person, the reflection seems to have 
occurred to him; that he had formerly been equally active in pursuits of a 
very different kind. This reflection, according to his usual habit, is genera- 
lized in the following lines. 



THEOGNIS. 



99 



XCV. 

The Passions and the Wants of nature breed 
Winged Desires, that with an airy speed 
Hurry abroad, for Pleasure or for Need ; 
On various errands, various as their hue, 
A fluttering, eager, ever busy crew. 



As his circumstances improved, his spirits seem to have risen, and he re- 
joices in the success of his exertions, though conscious of their derogatory 
character. 

XCVI. 

Plutus, of all the Gods, the first and best ! 
My wrongs with your assistance are redrest ; 
Now, reinstated in respectability, 
In spite of my baseness and humility. 



Though now relieved from poverty, he was unable, or did not deem it 
advisable, to indulge his Wishes and Fancies, as he had been in the habit of 
doing formerly. This change seemed to require an apology, which he addres- 
sed to them, as follows. 

XCVII. 

My old companions, Fancy and Desire! 
To treat you both, as each of you require, 
My means are insufficient — never mind! 
Ours is the common case of human kind. 



13 



100 



THEOGNIS. 



At length he finds himself in a situation in which he is led to consider the 
question of greater indulgence, and a larger expenditure. This question, after 
viewing it on both sides, he seems disposed to determine in favor of continued 
economy. 

The perplexity of which Theognis complains, is one which in our times 
would be easily solved by sinking a portion of capital or the whole of it, in a 
life-annuity : but he was fearful of infringing upon his capital, apprehending 
that (as is said to have been the case with Mr. Pope's father) he might live, 
more than long enough, to consume the whole. 

XCVIIL 

Current expenditure — to bring it all 
Within the compass of our capital, 
Is a wise Plan, but difficult withal. 
Could we beforehand ascertain the date 
Of our existence, we might fix a rate 
For our expense, and make it more or less ; 
But, as it is, we must proceed by guess. 
The road divides I which path am I to choose ? 
Perplexed with opposite diverging views. 
Say, shall I struggle on, to save and spare, 
Or lead an easy life, and banish care ? 
Some have I seen ; with competence of wealth, 
Indifferent to friendship, pleasure, health, 
Struggling and saving ; till the final call, 
Death sends his summons, and confiscates all ! 
Allotting, to the thankless heedless heir, 
The produce of his economic care ! 

Yet others have I seen; reckless of pelf; 
«I take my pastime, and I please myself » 
Such was the jolly phrase — the same Gallant 
Have I beheld, an utter mendicant ; 



THEOGNIS. 



101 



In sad dependence, at his latter end, 
Watching and importuning every friend. 

Our wiser course then, Damocles! I deem, 
Is that, which steers aloof from each extreme : 
Not to consume my life, with care and pain, 
Economizing for another's gain ; 
And least of all, to risk the future fears 
Of indigence, in my declining years. 

With this reflection, therefore, I incline 
To lean a little to the saving line : 
For something should be left when life is fled, 
To purchase decent duty to the dead : 
Those easy tears, the customary debt 
Of kindly recollection and regret. 
Besides, the saving of superfluous cost 
Is a sure profit, never wholly lost ; 
Not altogether lost, though left behind, 
Bequeathed in kindness to a friendly mind. 

And for the present, can a lot be found 
Fairer and happier than a name renown' d, 
And easy competence, with honor crown'd; 
The just approval of the good and wise, 
Public applauses, friendly courtesies ; 
Where all combine, a single name to grace i 
With Honor and pre-eminence of place, /■ 
Coevals, Elders, and the rising race ! 3 



This last passage is separated from the preceding, in Brunk's edition. It 
is possible, that some intermediate lines may have been lost ; but the train of 
thought seems to be continuous: he feels, that the estimation which he has 
acquired in society, is such as to supersede any temptation to increase it, by 
living at an increased expense. 



102 



THEOGNIS. 



It is difficult to assign a place to the following fragment ; that it was writ- 
ten in exile is evident, 

Whether this picture has a reference to the battle of Elorus, or to some 
petty unrecorded hostilities which might have taken place while he was resi- 
dent in Thebes, it is not easy to determine. The address to companions, who 
like himself had no interest in the cause, seems to indicate a time when he had 
not separated himself from his fellow Emigrants; and the passage altogether, 
has more of a tone of freedom and alacrity than would seem to belong to the 
later period of his residence in Syracuse. It is therefore placed here, rather 
for the sake of marking the time of the battle of Elorus, than in any confidence 
that it actually related to it. — The tone of carelessness and indifference in 
which he speaks of going to battle, as upon a mere point of honor, forbids us 
to assign this fragment to the time of the action between the Calchideans and 
Athenians; in which he must have felt a strong interest. 

XCIX. 

Peace is my wish, may peace and plenty crown 
This happy land, the people and the town ! 
May peace remain! and may we never miss 
Good cheer and merry meetings such as this ! 
Whether at home or here, all wars I hate, 
All battle I detest and execrate. 
Then never hurry forward ! for we fight 
Not for ourselves nor for our Country's right. 

But with the bawling herald, loud and clear, 
Shouting a noisy summons in my ear, 
And with my own good horse, for very shame, 
We must engage and join the bloody game. 

The battle of Elorus, in which the Syracusans were totally defeated, was 
followed by the siege of Syracuse; which appears to have been long pro- 
tracted ; since it afforded time for a singular combination; that of the Corinth- 
ians and Corcyreans, habitually enemies, but each of them interested in behalf 



THEOGNIS. 



103 



of the Syracusans as a kindred Race. The joint assistance and interposition 
of these two states effected the deliverance of the Syracusans, under a com- 
promise, by which they surrendered to Gelo the sovereignity of Camarina. 
Suidas says, that during the siege, Theognis wrote a poem to "those who had 
escaped," meaning probably, those who having escaped from the battle, were 
afterwards the defenders of the besieged town. Of this poem, a small frag- 
ment may be traced in the confused medley which at present exists. It seems 
to reflect on the unwarlike character of the exiled nobility; a defect which 
notoriously belonged to them. The poem itself would have been interesting 
and curious ; but the remaining lines are of little value. 



The Gods have granted mighty stores of pelf 
To many a sluggard, useless to himself 
And his own partizans : but high renown 
Awaits the warrior who defends the town. 



The events above mentioned, seem to have led to Theognis' return from 
his long exile. The state of Corinth was at that time strongly influenced by 
democratic policy. The Corinthians had promoted the revolution at Megara 
and favored that of Athens; they were "the Cypselizing Race" whom The- 
ognis had execrated as the Authors of his misfortunes and disappointments. 
The Corinthian deputies and commanders however, on their arrival at Syra- 
cuse, must have found their old Aristocratic victim transformed by circum- 
stances, into a very passable democrat, engaged in the defence of the City, 
against a besieging force, commanded by the patron of the exiled Aristocracy. 
Theognis having no doubt introduced himself to the acquaintance of the Co- 
rinthian commander (an influential person in a state which possessed a great 
ascendancy over Megara) conscious moreover of a literary reputation which 
would do honor to his Country, and sufficiently provided with certificates of 
civism, seems to have thought, that nothing more was wanting, to procure 
his erasure from the " List of Emigrants : " his Corinthian friend however, 
whose political sagacity seems to have suggested the story of Sisyphus and 



104 



THEOGNIS. 



Proserpine, was unable to extricate him from the "Hell of Banishment" upon 
the simple consideration of his late political conduct. An amnesty for his 
old political offences on the part of the government, accompanied on his side, 
by a practical renunciation of his former principles and attachments, seems 
to have been the basis of the treaty; but there was also another indispensable 
article, the consideration of which, brings us back to the extracts immediately 
preceding the last ; which refer to the private finances of the poet. Drach- 
mas, it should seem, he had accumulated ; and a certain sacrifice of Drachmas 
was necessary to the success of the negotiation. Under these circumstances, 
the following characteristic lines were produced ; they express the poet's sa 
tisfaction at the acquisition and possession of wealth, mixed with a strong 
feeling of mortification, at being obliged to purchase as a favor, what he 
might have expected to have received honorably and gratuitously, as a tribute 
to his reputation and talents. The long history of Sisyphus and Proserpine 
is an Allegory. Proserpine is the power, whose connivance or indulgence 
can enable him to return from the infernal regions of exile : not as he had 
expected to return before, after a visit to the same dismal abodes; like Ulys- 
ses, with a bloody vengeance on his enemies Frag, LXXVI. but upon condi- 
tion of a mutual oblivion of the past; which he describes as "a grant of 
"oblivion accompanied by a sacrifice of his judgment and understanding;" 
the precise condition of the emigrant who obtains his return from the in- 
dulgence of a hostile party; and who binds himself at the same time, to an 
inoffensive behaviour in word and deed : on these conditions, he enjoys the 
benefit of oblivion on the one hand ; while on the other, his judgment of 
men and things is suppressed and practically annihilated. 

The story of Sisyphus and Proserpine appears at first sight, not only fo- 
reign to the main subject and purpose (an expression of devout gratitude 
to the God of wealth) but is moreover unaccountably tedious; this very te- 
diousness however, is an artifice of the poet, by which he directs the attention 
of the reader to a meaning, which he could not venture more distinctly to 
express. We are at first offended, and exclaim, — " What can be the meaning 
of all this stuff? " till after a little reflection, the meaning presents itself. 

Though much mortified, it should seem, at the pecuniary sacrifice required 
of him, Theognis does not suffer his indignation to get the better of his mo- 
desty and self respect; he disdains to state his own case; but exemplifies it 



THEOGNIS. 



105 



by a similar one. "If a man (says he) possessed the speed of the Harpies or 
"the sons of Boreas (that is to say, if he could obtain the greatest honor, for 
"so it was considered, for himself and his native city, by gaining a victory at 
"the Olympic Games) it would be of no avail to him; he would still have to 
"learn, that the only effectual influence is that of gold." We here again trace 
the association of ideas before noticed, between successful poetry and success 
at the Olympic Games. In the present case, what is affirmed of the one, is 
implied of the other — both would be useless. 

CI. 

Plutus ; justly to your gifts and you, 
Mankind attribute praise and honor due. 
With your assistance, we securely face 
Defeat and disappointment and disgrace. 
Thus to reward the virtuous, and to slight 
Wicked and dirty knaves, is surely right ! 
For with the world at large, no merit tells, 
But Plutus and his bounty, — nothing else! 
No ! not the sense of Rhadamanthus old, 
Nor all the shrewd devices manifold, 
Which Sisyphus, the keen Corinthian knew ; 
That wily chief, that, if old tales are true, 
Made a most strange escape, so poets tell, 
By dint of rhetoric, he returned from Hell ! 
For she (that kind oblivion can dispense ; 
But takes away the judgment and the sense) 
The Goddess Proserpine, by strong persuasion, 
Consented to connive at his evasion: 
A thing unheard of, and unknown before ; 
That, having passed the dark infernal door, 
And visited those dreary realms below 
From that disastrous prison-house of woe, 



106 



THEOGNIS. 



A man by policy should work his way; 
Emerging into light and upper day! 

Sisyphus gained a point which none beside, 
(Of all that ever liv'd or ever died) 
Could have atchiev'd — Yet Sisyphus would fail; 
Nor would Ulysses with his arts prevail ; 
Nor aged Nestor with his eloquence — 
No merit would avail you ; no pretence ; 
Though you possessed the vigour and the speed 
Of the swift Harpies, or the winged breed 
Of Boreas, in the proud Olympic game 
A conqueror ! your native place and name 
Recorded and announced with loud acclaim 



•i 



Still, would you find the common saying hold, } 
«Fame is a jest; favor is bought and sold; > 
c<No power on earth is like the power of gold.») 



Whether the preceding lines were composed at Syracuse, or afterwards, 
in Greece (Lacedsemon) where it should seem, he waited the result of his 
negotiation, cannot be determined. — They are placed here, as forming a na- 
tural sequel to the fragments referable to Syracuse, and as an introduction 
to those which from their internal marks must be assigned to Lacedaemon 
The first of these bear a strong indication of having been composed at the 
time when the poet had passed the meridian of life. The "black fear of death 
which saddens all" is strongly marked in the first lines. He endeavours to 
escape from the ghastly images which it presents to him, by running into a 
long digression about Theotimus, and the history of his Vineyard ; and finally 
attempts to give a fillip to his spirits by a forced joke on the double sense of 
the word Owpyj/Osi?. The same word is punned upon elsewhere — all this 
seems characteristic of a mature age; while the mention of persons and things, 
indicates reminiscences, which imply, that he must have already visited the 
same country at an earlier period of his life. 






THEOGNIS. 



107 



CII. 

Enjoy your time, my Soul ! another race 
Will shortly fill the World, and take your place ; 
With their own hopes and fears, sorrow and mirth 
I shall be dust the while, and crumbled earth. 
But think not of it! Drink the racy wine 
Of rich Taygetus, press' d from the vine 
Which Theotimus, in the sunny glen, 
(Old Theotimus, lov'd by Gods and men) 
Planted, and watered from a plenteous source, 
Teaching the wayward stream a better course : 
Drink it, and cheer your heart, and banish care ; 
A load of wine will lighten our despair. 



I should be inclined to think that Theognis must have been connected by 
the ties of hospitality with some Spartan or Laconian families; that of Theo- 
timus, for instance here mentioned, or that Clearistus (before mentioned, as so 
connected with him) may have been a Laconian. 

The following lines appear also to have been written in Lacedaemon, and 
evidently relate to some matter of important trust ; probably to the friendly 
and confidential agency through which he was enabled to purchase a remission 
of his exile. 



i 



cm. 

Ye twins- of Jove ! an undivided twain, 
That on Eurotas' shore and happy plain. 
In endless harmony preside and reign ! 3 
Punish our guilt I If ever by design, 
I wrong my friend ; let all the loss be mine 
But, if the fault is his ! Double the fine ! 



14 



108 



THEOGNIS. 



The next lines, though referable to Lacedaemon, may have been com- 
posed there at an earlier period of the poet's life. Though in both instances 
the conclusion points to hand drinking, they seem much too juvenile for the 
Author of Frag. CII. The four concluding verses have been subjoined as a 
natural sequel. In the original, they are separated ; and stand as a distinct 
fragment in Brunck's edition. 



CIV. 



Now that in mid career, checking his course, 
The bright Sun pauses in his pride and force : 
Let us prepare to dine ; and eat and drink 
The best of every thing that heart can think ; 
And let the shapely Spartan damsel fair 
Bring, with a rounded arm and graceful air, 
Water to wash, and garlands for our hair : 
In spite of all the systems and the rules 
Invented and observed by sickly fools ; 
Let us be brave, and resolutely drink ; 
Not minding if the Dog-star rise or sink. 



The two first lines of the original are hardly intelligible. It seems pro- 
bable, that two lines may have been lost between the first and the second. 

The next fragments bring us back to Megara, and represent Theognis, as 
a returned Emigrant, studiously and anxiously patriotic and popular ; ready 
to sympathize equally with the grave apprehensions, or the mirthful enter- 
tainments which occupied the attention of his fellow citizens ; and giving an 
indirect pledge in the first fragment, and a more decided one in the second, 
of his resolution to abstain from party politics; and to confine himself to the 
cultivation of poetry and of the sister arts, with which it was immediately 
connected ; Music and the management of the Chorus. 

The last lines of the first fragment serve to confirm Mr. Clinton's sug- 
gestion, that he was born in the 59th. Olympiad; in which, according to some 



THEOGNIS. 



109 



accounts, he is said to have flourished — but, as He justly observes, these com- 
putations would suppose Theognis to have been near eighty in 490 — the time 
of the battle of Marathon. The concluding lines certainly give a decided ne- 
gative to such a supposition. The characters of mature age (as has been al- 
ready observed) is marked in a preceding fragment (the last but two). The 
same association of ideas is also observable in this, which must have been 
written a very short time after : in both of them, the pleasures of conviviali- 
ty are connected with the fear of death (the evil with its remedy); but in ex- 
tremeage, such remedies are not resorted to; moreover, old age itself is here 
spoken of as a distant evil. 

CV. 

May Jove, the Almighty, with his own right hand 
Guard and uphold this happy town and land ! 
With all the glorious blessed Gods above ! 
And may the bright Apollo guide and move 
My voice and fancy, cunningly to carp 
In songs accordant to the pipe and harp ! 
When, after solemn rites of sacrifice, 
At feasts and banquets, freely we devise 
Of mirth and pastime ; banishing afar 
All fears of Persia and her threatened war ; 
With joyous airy songs of merry verse, 
Quaffing and chanting «May we ne'er be worse » 
But better; if a better thing can be, 
Than thus to live at ease, cheerful and free ; 
While far remote, no fears our thoughts engage, 
Of death approaching, or disastrous age. 



The phrase <53' elvat xal fyetvov is evidently what we should call a toast 
or sentiment, equivalent to the Scotch "May there ne'er be worse among us! " 
or the Sailors "Here's better luck still!" 



110 



THEOGN1S. 



The next fragment is of the same time, as appears not only from the tone 
and character, but from the same mention of an apprehended invasion from 
Persia. — It may be considered as a kind of sequel to the preceding; the in- 
vocation to the inferior protecting Deity of the town, naturally following the 
preceding address to the supreme ruler of the World. This fragment is of 
considerable importance, as Mr. Brunck, by comparing the lines in which 
Alcathous is mentioned, with an inscription discovered at Megara, has shewn, 
that Theognis must have been a native of Megara in Greece, and not as Plato 
(undoubtedly from a mere supercilious affectation of ignorance) had asserted, 
a Sicilian. Moreover, it appears, that Sicily is mentioned as one of the fo- 
reign countries visited by him, during his long absence from his native land. 

The line in which Sicily is mentioned, has not been characteristically 
translated ; in the original, there is a tone of hesitation and sneaking, as if 
he had said in English "And truly indeed! at one time, I went to Sicily;" this, 
the translator was quite unable to account for; and was inclined to ima- 
gine, that it might be an unfounded fancy of his own, not having at the time 
any suspicion, that the poet's departure for Sicily had been immediately 
preceded by an unsuccessful address to the adverse party. As it is how- 
ever pretty clear, that this must have been the case; the poverty and mean- 
ness of such a style would be easily accounted for, as not unsuited to the 
subject, recalling as it must have done, to his own mind, and that of others, 
the recollection of an act of humiliation, gratuitous in its commencement, 
and unprofitable in its result. His voyage to Sicily (as has been seen al- 
ready) having been determined upon in consequence of the rejection of the 
submissive overtures indicated in Frs. LXXXII-LXXXIII and LXXXIV. 

It has been already remarked, that the Poet avoids all mention of Thebes, 
the Coblentz of the emigrant party, the head quarters of their meditated 
hostilities. 



CVI. 



You, great Apollo, with its walls and towers, 
Fenc'd and adorn'd of old, this, town of ours I 



THEOGNIS. 



Ill 



Such favor in thy sight, Alcathous won, 
Of Pelops old the fair and manly son. 
Now therefore, in thy clemency divine, 
Protect these very walls, our own and thine ! 
Guide and assist us, turn aside the boast 
Of the destroying, haughty Persian host ! 

So shall thy people each returning spring, 
Slay fatted hecatombs ; and gladly bring 
Fair gifts, with chaunted hymns, and lively song, 
Dances and feasts, and happy shouts among, 
Before thy altar, glorifying Thee, 
In peace and health and wealth, cheerful and free. 

Yet much I fear the faction and the strife, 
Throughout our Grecian cities, raging rife ; 
And their wild councils. But, do thou defend 
This town of ours, our founder and our friend ! 

Wide have I wandered, far beyond the sea, 
Even to the distant shores of Sicily, 
To broad Eubaea's plentiful domain, 
With the rich vineyards, in its planted plain ; 
And to the sunny wave and winding edge 
Of fair Eurotas, with its reedy sedge ; 
Where Sparta stands in simple majesty, 
Among her manly rulers, there was I ! 
Greeted and welcomed (there and every where) 
With courteous entertainment, kind and fair ; 
Yet still my weary spirit would repine, 
Longing again to view this land of mine. 

Henceforward, no design nor interest 
Shall ever move me, but the first and best, 
With learning's happy gift to celebrate, 
To adorn and dignify my native State. 



112 






* See note [r 
Mullers Do- 
rians vol. II, 
p. 15. (Tur- 
pell and Lew- 
is translation.) 



The Song, the Dance, music and verse agreeing, 
Will occupy my life, and fill my being: 
Pursuits of elegance and learned skill, 
(With good repute and kindness and good will, 
Among the wiser sort) will pass my time 
Without an enemy, without a crime ; 
Harmless and just with every rank of men 
Both the free native and the denizen. 



The lines "Henceforward no design nor interest" are intended to mark a 
point of character, not immediately obvious in the original ; vecoxepov 7tpaYfJia 
was an habitual phrase for an attempt to change the government. Theognis, 
meaning to imply, that he is resolved to abstain from all factious schemes, 
varies the established phrase, and substitutes [i.zXid'/]\Kct vewTepov ; Thought 
for Action : as a more modest form of expressing the same assurance. 

It may be observed, that vs'ov would be a much better supplement than 
zocxov for the verse of Tyrtceus* in which he is describing the duties and obli- 
gations of the Spartan Commonalty. 

We cannot imagine that the Oracle, or the Poet, in the name of the Ora- 
cle, could have cautioned the Spartans against betraying their country : a 
warning against innovation might be proper enough. 

The reader, if this note has led him to consult the original, will see that 
the next couplet is an amplification not to be found in this fragment; but if 
he will again refer to line 925. he will find the authority for it. It is true, 
that these lines 923 to 926 appear to have been written before his exile; but 
in his character of a poet at least, there was no occasion why Theognis should 
speak of himself less confidently than before. 

The following lines shew, that his return was embittered by the undutiful 
behaviour of his family, who had grown up in his absence. 



113 



CVII. 

The Gods, in just allotment have assigned 
Youth and old age, the portion of mankind, 
Alike for all ; impartially we share ^ 

Youth's early pleasures; equally we bear \ 
The latter ills of life, sickness and care. 3 
One single evil, more severe and rude 
Than age or sickness or decrepitude, 
Is dealt unequally ; for him that rears 
A thankless Offspring ; in his latter years, 
Ungratefully requited for his pains, 
A parsimonious life and thrifty gains, 
With toil and care acquired for their behoof: 
And no return! but insolent reproof; 
Such as might scare a Beggar from the Gate, 
A wretch unknown, poor and importunate ! 
— To be reviFd, avoided, hated, curst; 
This is the last of evils, and the worst ! 



Theognis had left his wife, and at least one son behind him, when he quit- 
ted Megara — some verses written in the early part of his banishment, serve 
to shew, that she was behaving well in his absence. There are no further 
notices to be found respecting her — but, a family of children growing up 
under the tuition and protection of the ruling party, would probably become 
connected with them ; and would be liable to be extremely disgusted and 
annoyed at the return of so near a connection, who abjuring rank and pre- 
tensions of every kind, had subsisted for many years as a mere artist, and 
who now reappeared with a fixed determination to confine himself scrupulous- 
ly to those pursuits by which he had before" obtained a livelihood — all the 
money which he had made in Sicily, would not compensate for such a 
mortification. 



114 



THEOGNIS. 



The following lines appear evidently to belong to the period subsequent 
to his return from exile; they are perfectly in harmony with the unobnoxious 
line of conduct, which he had chalked out to himself; they represent him as 
communicating his acquirements from a natural feeling of public duty and 
public spirit; obviously to the exclusion of any mercenary inducement ; they 
cannot therefore be assigned to the period of his lucrative professional prac- 
tice in Sicily — again, they would be wholly out of place in the earlier years 
of his exile (at Thebes or Eubsea) or in the tumultuous times which imme- 
diately preceded, and if we go back to a still earlier period, we find that the 
system of secrecy and reserve which he then practised (see Frag. IX) is that 
which (in allusion perhaps to his former habit) he now condemns. 

CVIII. 

The servant of the Muse, gifted and grac'd 
With high preeminence of art and taste, 
Has an allotted duty to fulfill ; 
Bound to dispense the treasure of his skill ; 
Without a selfish or invidious view ; 
Bound to recite, and to compose anew. 
Not to reserve his talent for himself. 
In secret, like a Miser with his pelf. 



—*#©♦«*- 






115 



ftoatsmpt 



The modern reader to whom the original is inaccessible, will probably close 
this volume with a feeling of suspense, and a doubt in his own mind — "Whe- 
ther these things are so?" Whether the picture which has been presented to 
him is a correct one, exhibiting the true representation of a human mind at a 
period so remote, and formed under circumstances so different from those of 
modern times ; or whether the original has served merely as a canvas upon 
which the translator has been endeavouring to trace a fanciful picture for his 
own amusement and that of his readers? To this question a'satisfactory an- 
swer can be given, at least as far as regards the design of the work, and the 
degree of attention which has been bestowed upon it. Its merit, if it has any, 
consists in a constant endeavour to convey to the English Reader an exact 
and complete notion of the intention of the original, and a clear impression 
of the temper, character, and style which it exhibits: but it is safer to speak of 
negative than of positive merits. The Writer then ventures to say that no- 
thing has been hightened by embellishment, nor modified in conformity to 
modern ideas or modern taste, nor aggravated on the other hand in order to 
produce an effect in those passages which exhibited the strongest contrast 
with the feelings and opinions of the present time. — Those for example in 
which the Poet discusses the subject of the order of Providence in an address 
to Jupiter, stating his objections, and debating the question in a tone of res- 
pectful familiarity ! or in which he expresses a wish " to drink the blood of his 
enemies," accompanied by the hope that some benignant deity will assist him 
in the accomplishment of that desirable purpose ; in these and similar passages 
the English Reader may be assured that it has been the endeavour of the 
translator to express to the best of ^his ability the true phraseognomy of the 
original without in any degree heightening it ; though for the sake of making it 



IS 



116 



THEOGNIS. 



more palpable, it may in some instances have been expanded, and exhibited 
more at length. This defect of expansion is in fact unavoidable, or avoidable 
only by sacrificing the very object which, to an intelligent modern reader, is 
the only one which makes the translation of an ancient Author (such as 
Theognis) in any degree interesting. It might not be difficult to crowd into 
a given number of lines or words an exact verbal interpretation, but this verbal 
interpretation would convey almost in every instance either an imperfect mean- 
ing or a false character, the relative and collateral ideas, and the associations 
which served as stepping-stones to transitions apparently incongruous and 
abrupt, would still be wanting, and the Author, whose elliptical familiar 
phraseology was a mere transcript of the language of daily life, would have 
the appearance of a pedantic composer studiously obscure and enigmatic. 

With respect to the smaller fragments something must be assumed upon 
probability or taken upon trust; much time and attention have been bestowed 
in assigning to them the order in which they are here placed, and in conjec- 
tures as to the circumstances which gave rise to them (or to the Poems of 
which they formed a part) as well as to their real meaning and intention. 
To justify those inferences in every instance, would have required a sepa- 
rate dissertation for each fragment — but of writing dissertations there is no 
end — nor is there any task more difficult, or in its results more unsatisfactory, 
than that of attempting to accommodate a demonstration to the various 
apprehensions of different Readers. With the generality of Readers he is 
apprehensive that he may appear to have erred in the prolixity of his com- 
mentary, encumbering and retarding the progress of a narrative otherwise 
interesting and amusing. 

To the learned who may be disposed to follow the same train of investi- 
gation, the consideration of an analogous case is respectfully submitted. 

It is recorded of persons, who have been long confined in situations of 
apparently total darkness, that they have by degrees acquired the power of 
distinguishing objects ; and that ultimately time and habit have anabled them 
to enjoy the faculty of vision, in a medium, so obscure as to present no distin- 
guishable object, to a stranger newly introduced into the same abode. The 
Author of this Essay has subjected himself to voluntary confinement in one of 
the darkest cells in the whole dungeon of literature; being persuaded that by 
time and patience he might adap this vision to the obscurity in which he was 



THEOGNIS. 



placed, and that some object of interest and curiosity would be finally disco- 
verable. At his first entrance every thing was obscure, by degrees however 
many points became dimly discernable, and finally distinctly manifest; but he 
cannot expect that the same objects, even when they are pointed out and 
described, should be at once recognized by a stranger, however acute his natu- 
ral power of vision may be, who passes at once from the broad glare of day 
light, and transfers himself suddenly into the situation in which the Writer 
has been so long secluded. 

To the consideration therefore of such persons (much his superiors, for the 
most part, in learning and critical knowledge) he would wish to suggest in 
the first place, the apparent truth and probability of the whole narrative ; 
coupled with the fact, that of the remaining fragments of the Poet there is 
not one to which a place may not be assigned, in one or other of the periods 
into which his life is divided. — Where the flowing line of a probable and 
easy narrative passes like a Catenary curve through a long series of incidents 
and allusions without deviation or interruption, we are led to an inference 
like that of the Mathematical Axiom. Ut pendet continuum flexile ita stabit 
continuum rectum — we conclude that the narrative which complies with these 
conditions must be the true one; and that it may be admitted to stand as an 
independent construction, without the aid of external props, supporting itself 
by the mutual bearing and pressure of the parts. The only external props 
in the present instance consist of the few historical data, which may be consi- 
dered as the piers and abutments, upon which the separate arches of conjec- 
ture have been constructed. — But phrases of this magnitude applied to so 
minute a subject, serve to remind the Writer who has made use of them, that 
he is in danger of falling into the common error of estimating any trifling 
advance in knowledge, not according to its real value, but in proportion to 
the time and labour which have been bestowed upon it. 



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